Maintenance of clinical skills: a study of full-time physician teachers.

The ways in which full-time physician teachers of family medicine maintain their clinical skills were examined. A questionnaire survey of 500 randomly sampled physician teachers was conducted to examine their practice profile, both ambulatory and inpatient, and opinions as to the value of various activities in maintaining their clinical skills. Overall response rate was 84.4%, but only the responses of full-time teachers (69.6%) were used. Teachers spend 2.4 half days per week providing direct patient care and 3.1 half days per week supervising residents. Approximately 90% attend on an inpatient family medicine service, while about 60% admit and manage patients by themselves. A minimum of 2.3 half days per week of providing direct patient care was felt to be necessary to maintain clinical skills. Direct patient care was felt to be the single most important activity in maintaining clinical skills. While statistical differences among residency types existed, the faculty of the various types of residency programs had very similar practice profiles and opinions as to the maintenance of their clinical skills.