A descriptive study of junior residents' encounters with patients presenting various signs, symptoms, and diseases during initial postgraduate general practice/family medicine training in Japan.

Background: In 2020, 29 signs/symptoms as well as 26 diseases/disorders to be encountered during initial postgraduate training were defined in Japan. The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which junior residents can encounter the signs/symptoms and diseases/disorders during general practice/family medicine training.

Methods: Junior residents who participated in general practice/family medicine training for four weeks between 2019 and 2022 were:enrolled in the study. They were each assigned to one of five medical institutions with full-time family doctors in Fukushima Prefecture. The rate of participants who encountered each sign/symptom and disease/disorder, as well as the number of signs/symptoms and diseases/disorders each participant encountered, were defined as outcomes and analyzed descriptively.

Results: Ninety junior residents participated in the study. More than half of the participants encountered 11 out of the 29 signs/symptoms, and each participant encountered an average of nine signs/symptoms. As for diseases/disorders, more than half of the participants encountered 11 out of the 26 diseases/disorders, with an average of 11 per participant.

Conclusion: General practice/family medicine training provided the junior residents with the opportunity to experience a wide range of signs/symptoms and diseases/disorders.