Date of Graduation

2013

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

Abstract

Chronic disease care places significant pressure on healthcare provider resources, often requiring the hiring of physicians trained abroad to meet these demands. International medical graduates are on trend to become the primary suppliers of chronic disease care in the U.S. Consequently, there is a need to assess how physicians trained abroad care for patients with chronic diseases. The purpose of this exploratory survey study was to determine whether international and U.S. medical graduates differ in their use of three specific psychosocial interventions when caring for patients suffering from chronic diseases. Medical residents in U.S. allopathic family medicine and internal medicine residency programs were recruited online to complete a researcher-generated survey. The Mann-Whitney U-test was used to test for differences between the two groups of residents. There were no significant between group differences on the variables studied. Differences between female and male resident physicians were also explored using the Mann-Whitney U-test. Female resident physicians were found to perceive a significantly greater amount of value-added when behavioral/mind-body interventions are used to treat chronic diseases. Spearman's rank-order correlation was used to examine the relationship between year of residency training and use of psychosocial interventions. Significant relationships were not found. Limitations, clinical implications, and recommendations for future research relate to method of inquiry, sample size, instrumentation, curriculum changes, and the need for behavioral health providers to conduct applied research projects leading to practice-based evidence for interdisciplinary chronic disease care.

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