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Clinics In Sports Medicine

ORLANDO--Don't expect to find a standard sports medicine curriculum at family practice residency programs.

A national survey revealed wide variation in the way sports medicine is taught, Dr. Samuel Adkins reported at the annual meeting of the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine.

"Most family physicians practice some sort of sports medicine, so you would think you'd find more consistency between sports medicine curricula," commented Dr. Adkins, a residency program director at East Carolina University, Greenville, N.C.

That was the frustration that he felt when he set out to design East Carolina's sports medicine curriculum.

He reviewed 335 responses to a survey that he mailed to 471 family practice residency programs. The survey asked whether there was a structured sports medicine curriculum, and, if so, how the curriculum was structured, whether the instructors were sports medicine specialists, and whether the program was linked to a fellowship program.

Three-quarters of the respondents reported having a structured sports medicine curriculum, and most of these programs had instructors with certificates of added qualifications in sports medicine. The size, type, age, and location of the residency program had no bearing on whether the sports medicine curriculum was structured or not.

Residency programs with a structured curriculum were more likely to have a dedicated sports medicine clinic. Of the 7.2% of surveyed residency programs that had such a clinic, most also had a structured sports medicine curriculum, Dr. Adkins reported.

The typical structured sports medicine curriculum involves didactic training and work in an ambulatory clinic. Programs ranged between 40 and 160 curriculum hours, with a mean of 76 hours. Further, 65% of structured programs had preparticipation clinics (hours dedicated to examining athletes before sports activities), and 63% had residents care directly for athletic teams.

Most programs use attendance at clinics or didactic sessions as the primary method of measuring effectiveness, which makes it difficult to answer questions about how the curriculum should be improved. Close to 60% of the programs also expect residents to demonstrate sports medicine skills, Dr. Adkins said.

Overall, about 19% of the survey respondents expressed dissatisfaction with their sports medicine curriculum. And 60% said that they planned to change the curriculum, mostly by adding faculty who have certificates in added qualifications in sports medicine or who have completed a sports medicine fellowship.

COPYRIGHT 2000 International Medical News Group
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group