Rana Aamir Diwan, Muhammad Saif-ul malook, Muhammad Nasir.
Working and Attitudes of Self-employed General Practitioners in Pakistan: a rural-urban Comparison.
Pak J Med Health Sci Jan ;7(3):792-5.

Aims: To observe any differences and similarities in the working of self-employed GPs in rural and urban areas of Pakistan, to evaluate the workload of self-employed GPs: a rural-urban comparison and to assess the attitude of self-employed GPs towards community based public health research. Methods: This study was conducted partly in the District of Lodhran and partly in the City of Bahawalpur in Punjab over a period of five months (1st June 2012 to 31st October 2012). Self-employed GPs working in Lodhran Town (n = 23) and in Bahawalpur city (n = 40) were included in the study. Data collection has been done in two phases and was done by completing the questionnaires during personal interviews with every GP and supplemented by telephonic conversations. Both phases were completed by using same methods and same questionnaire. Results: The mean age of practitioners in rural areas was 42.09±6.49 while it was 44.21±9.63 years (p=0.35). All of the respondents in both groups were male. 87% of the rural and 59% of the urban doctors had no post-graduation qualification. 71.4% (n=15) of the rural and 46.2% (n=18) of urban doctors performed surgery at their clinics. Participation in continuing medical education (CME) courses was 19.0% (n=4) in rural while 30.8% (n=12) of the urban practitioners. 23.8% (n=5) of the rural and 36.8% (n=14) of the urban doctors read medical journals. Conclusion: Overall this study identified few differences between urban and rural primary care physician working conditions. Many of the GPs had a negative attitude toward research, and had little awareness for medical research.

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