HEALTH PROMOTION COUNSELING IN RESIDENCY TRAINING

This report describes health promotion counseling attitudes and practi ces in a family medicine residency that attempted to encourage such co unseling. A patient ''Health Habits Questionnaire'' and matching patie nt education booklets were developed and distributed. Six grand rounds presentations on counseling were given. On three occasions, residency physicians completed questionnaires about counseling, Despite good pe rsonal health habits and positive attitudes toward counseling, the res idency physicians had only moderate confidence in their counseling abi lity and infrequently documented counseling. The residents reported si gnificant improvement in their ability to counsel patients about smoki ng cessation. Overall, the curriculum appeared to have a limited effec t on health promotion.