title: Is obstetrics-gynecology a primary care specialty?
abstract: Suddenly everyone wants more primary care physicians. For several years, we collected data from senior medical students to relate their attitudes and beliefs about several clinical problems common to primary care to their choices of residencies. Because the Texas Medical Association's Special Committee on Primary Care included obstetrics-gynecology as a primary care specialty, we reviewed our data to see if the personal traits and professional role characteristics of seniors choosing obstetrics-gynecology differed materially from those of seniors choosing family medicine, internal medicine, or pediatrics. Results of this analysis put obstetrics-gynecology about as firmly in the primary care group as if the experimental design had planned it that way.
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Tex. 77030, USA.
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Merrill
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lorimor
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Laux
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Thornby
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Vallbona
mesh_terms: D005194:Family Practice / Q000639:trends; D006176:Gynecology / Q000639:trends; D009774:Obstetrics / Q000639:trends; D013781:Texas; D000078329:Workforce