MEN AND WOMEN RESIDENTS EXPERIENCES WITH WOMENS HEALTH-CARE IN A FAMILY MEDICINE CENTER

Purpose. To address the experience in women's health care available at the Queen's University Faculty of Medicine family residency program a nd to compare the amounts and types of experiences of men and women re sidents. Method. A retrospective analysis was made of 70,805 patient e ncounters with family medicine residents at the Queen's University Fam ily Medicine Centre over a five-year period (June 1988-May 1993). Pati ent-encounter files contained patient, staff, and resident information , as well as service and diagnostic codes. Statistical analysis was do ne using a two-tailed Student's t-test to compare the mean numbers of encounters with the women patients for the men and women residents in ten service and diagnostic categories. Results. Of the 70,805 patients , 65.1% were women. The mean numbers of patients seen by the 45 men re sidents (534) and the 90 women residents (519) did not differ signific antly. The percentages of the women patients seen by the men and the w omen residents (58.6% and 68.4%, respectively), however, differed sign ificantly. The mean ages of the women patients seen by the men and the women residents (44.5 years and 39.2 years, respectively) also differ ed significantly. The women had significantly more encounters with the women patients in five of the ten categories studied. Conclusion. The differences between the men and women residents' experiences was sign ificant in several areas. A potentially confounding factor is that the women may have been preferentially placed in team areas with all wome n staff physicians and the men placed in team areas with all men staff physicians. As family medicine programs aim for levels of exposure th at are sufficient and similar for men and women residents, it is impor tant that they evaluate the clinical opportunities for residents in wo men's health and work to ensure that both men and women residents rece ive adequate exposure in this area. One step in this direction might b e gender-balanced patient populations, which might be obtained by ensu ring gender-balanced clinical teams.