Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2013 Jul 22;6(1):29.
doi: 10.1186/1865-1380-6-29.

Creation and implementation of an emergency medicine education and training program in Turkey: an effective educational intervention to address the practitioner gap

Jennifer Whitfield Bellows  1 , Katherine Douglass, Ridvan Atilla, Jeffrey Smith, G Bobby Kapur
Affiliations

Creation and implementation of an emergency medicine education and training program in Turkey: an effective educational intervention to address the practitioner gap

Jennifer Whitfield Bellows et al. Int J Emerg Med. .

Abstract

Background: The specialty of Emergency Medicine has enjoyed recognition for nearly 20 years in Turkey. However, the majority of underserved and rural Turkish emergency departments are staffed by general practitioners who lack formal training in the specialty and have few opportunities to increase emergency medicine-specific knowledge and skills.

Methods: To address this "practitioner gap," the authors developed a four-phase comprehensive emergency medicine education and training program for general practitioners practicing in government hospitals in Turkey.

Results: From April 2006 until June 2009, 42 courses were taught by 62 trainers across seven regions in Turkey. A total of 2,262 physicians were trained. The mean course pre-test score for all regions was 42.3 (95% CI 39.8 to 44.7). The mean course post-test score was 70.1 (95% CI 67.2 to 72.9). The difference between the mean scores was 27.8 (95% CI 25.3 to 30.4, P <0.0001), reflecting an improvement of 65.7%.

Conclusions: A partnership between an academic emergency medicine department and an emergency medicine society to implement country-wide training of physicians practicing in public emergency departments can serve as a successful model for capacity-building global emergency medicine endeavors.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Four-day core topics in emergency medicine: course curriculum.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Seven regions in Turkey with primary cities.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Alagappan K, Schafermeyer R, Holliman CJ. et al.International emergency medicine and the role for academic emergency medicine. Acad Emerg Med. 2007;6(5):451–456. - PubMed
    1. Bresnahan K, Fowler J. Emergency medical care in Turkey: current status and future directions. Ann Emerg Med. 1995;6(3):357–360. doi: 10.1016/S0196-0644(95)70086-2. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Cevik AA, Rodoplu U, Holliman CJ. Update on the development of emergency medicine as a specialty in Turkey. Eur J Emerg Med. 2001;6(2):123–129. - PubMed
    1. Rinnert S, Miller A, Ersel M, Doty CI. International emergency medicine: the Turkish experience. Medscape. 2008. Available at http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/574216. Accessed on April 1, 2013.
    1. Rinnert S. Emergency Medicine International Ambassador Report: Turkey. American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) 2011. Available at http://www.acep.org/ISContent.aspx?id=31034&formdataid=13606. Accessed on April 1, 2013.

LinkOut - more resources