In this study, directors of primary care residency programs were sent
a questionnaire that asked for information about their program and exa
mined their perceptions of program curricula and resident mastery of s
even preselected topics in women's health, An elective ambulatory gyne
cology experience was offered in 52% of programs, and 35% of programs
had all residents experience such a rotation. All seven selected topic
s were felt to be important for residents to master, but the prevalenc
e of structured teaching experiences and resident mastery for each top
ic varied widely, For the majority of programs, domestic violence was
not a curricular component. However, 44% of respondents spontaneously
commented that they were expanding their curriculum in the area of wom
en's health.