Background: General practice training in Europe is still an unresolved issue. Italy has developed a formation course similar to specialty schools, awarding a certificate of attendance at the end of a 3-year period. Its training goals are defined mainly as work hours in medical facilities, including two semesters at two general practices.
Objectives: To evaluate if a registrar, during a semester in a general practice, has access to a case spectrum consistent enough to achieve the training goals, both 'methodological' (work organization targets) and 'specific' (targets of opportunity).
Methods: During a six-month period, every patient contact qualified for tutoring was recorded. For each visit, access mode and priority, patient name, age, patient reason for encounter (RFE), diagnosis, referrals, prescribed laboratory tests and treatment were recorded. Data was evaluated as in other Italian medical specialties; i.e. compared to target numbers.
Results: A total of 1 828 contacts and 2 437 RFE in 122 work days were recorded. There were 1 007 and 613 contacts with and without appointment respectively, 88 'family contacts,' 44 scheduled check-ups, 11 phone contacts, and 65 nurse interventions. Of all contacts, 9.8% were indirect. In six months, we had at least one contact with 792 patients out of 1 500 (52.8%). Main RFE resulted from respiratory and musculoskeletal symptoms while most frequent diagnoses belonged to musculoskeletal, cardiovascular and respiratory fields.
Conclusions: A six months training period can be sufficient for representing a general practitioner's work organization and primary care epidemiology. However, deficiencies were observed.