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Inquiry Into Physicians’ Scope of Practice in Japanese Rural Hospitals During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Serial Cross-Sectional Study

Introduction Physicians' scope of practice (SoP) depends on clinical settings and is related to how motivated they feel. The clarification and differences in the SoP in each clinical setting are necessary for physicians’ careers. This study aimed to investigate how coronavirus disease 2019 (COV...

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Autores principales: Kusunoki, Masayoshi, Ohta, Ryuichi, Suzuki, Kentaro, Maki, Takayuki, Sano, Chiaki
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Cureus 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9302859/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35891861
http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.26164
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author Kusunoki, Masayoshi
Ohta, Ryuichi
Suzuki, Kentaro
Maki, Takayuki
Sano, Chiaki
author_facet Kusunoki, Masayoshi
Ohta, Ryuichi
Suzuki, Kentaro
Maki, Takayuki
Sano, Chiaki
author_sort Kusunoki, Masayoshi
collection PubMed
description Introduction Physicians' scope of practice (SoP) depends on clinical settings and is related to how motivated they feel. The clarification and differences in the SoP in each clinical setting are necessary for physicians’ careers. This study aimed to investigate how coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) affected physicians’ SoP. Methods This serial cross-sectional study compares the differences in physicians’ SoP among Japanese rural community hospitals between 2018 and 2020. The participants were admitted patients in the internal medicine wards of the two community hospitals in urban and rural districts in the rural prefecture (Shimane) of Japan from January 1, 2018, to December 31, 2020. We calculated the number of health problems among the highest 50% of all health problems for each physician (SoP-50%) and used it as an indicator of the comprehensiveness of clinical practice. Results The study found that SoP-50% was significantly higher in rural districts in 2018 (p = 0.0209). This trend remained unchanged even during the COVID-19 in 2020 (p = 0.0441). While there was a significant regional difference in the SoP, pre and post-COVID-19 analysis of the SoP in each region did not show any significant change. Conclusion This is the first study to indicate that greater comprehensiveness of clinical practice is required in the districts of rural Japan. The findings can be helpful for physicians’ medical education and career choices.
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spelling pubmed-93028592022-07-25 Inquiry Into Physicians’ Scope of Practice in Japanese Rural Hospitals During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Serial Cross-Sectional Study Kusunoki, Masayoshi Ohta, Ryuichi Suzuki, Kentaro Maki, Takayuki Sano, Chiaki Cureus Family/General Practice Introduction Physicians' scope of practice (SoP) depends on clinical settings and is related to how motivated they feel. The clarification and differences in the SoP in each clinical setting are necessary for physicians’ careers. This study aimed to investigate how coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) affected physicians’ SoP. Methods This serial cross-sectional study compares the differences in physicians’ SoP among Japanese rural community hospitals between 2018 and 2020. The participants were admitted patients in the internal medicine wards of the two community hospitals in urban and rural districts in the rural prefecture (Shimane) of Japan from January 1, 2018, to December 31, 2020. We calculated the number of health problems among the highest 50% of all health problems for each physician (SoP-50%) and used it as an indicator of the comprehensiveness of clinical practice. Results The study found that SoP-50% was significantly higher in rural districts in 2018 (p = 0.0209). This trend remained unchanged even during the COVID-19 in 2020 (p = 0.0441). While there was a significant regional difference in the SoP, pre and post-COVID-19 analysis of the SoP in each region did not show any significant change. Conclusion This is the first study to indicate that greater comprehensiveness of clinical practice is required in the districts of rural Japan. The findings can be helpful for physicians’ medical education and career choices. Cureus 2022-06-21 /pmc/articles/PMC9302859/ /pubmed/35891861 http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.26164 Text en Copyright © 2022, Kusunoki et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Family/General Practice
Kusunoki, Masayoshi
Ohta, Ryuichi
Suzuki, Kentaro
Maki, Takayuki
Sano, Chiaki
Inquiry Into Physicians’ Scope of Practice in Japanese Rural Hospitals During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Serial Cross-Sectional Study
title Inquiry Into Physicians’ Scope of Practice in Japanese Rural Hospitals During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Serial Cross-Sectional Study
title_full Inquiry Into Physicians’ Scope of Practice in Japanese Rural Hospitals During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Serial Cross-Sectional Study
title_fullStr Inquiry Into Physicians’ Scope of Practice in Japanese Rural Hospitals During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Serial Cross-Sectional Study
title_full_unstemmed Inquiry Into Physicians’ Scope of Practice in Japanese Rural Hospitals During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Serial Cross-Sectional Study
title_short Inquiry Into Physicians’ Scope of Practice in Japanese Rural Hospitals During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Serial Cross-Sectional Study
title_sort inquiry into physicians’ scope of practice in japanese rural hospitals during the covid-19 pandemic: a serial cross-sectional study
topic Family/General Practice
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9302859/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35891861
http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.26164
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