Continuing medical education needs of general practitioner trainers in Sichuan, China: A cross-sectional study

Background General practitioner trainers play an important role in developing the clinical and educational competence of future general practitioners. This study aimed to identify the continuing medical education needs, educational priorities, perceived barriers, and preferred educational approaches of general practitioner trainers participating in a provincial core training programme in Sichuan Province, China. Methods A descriptive cross-sectional survey was conducted among general practitioner trainers attending a provincial core training programme in Sichuan Province. An online questionnaire collected information on demographic characteristics, educational priorities, perceived usefulness of professional competencies, evaluation of current training, barriers to teaching development, preferred teaching methods, training formats, assessment approaches and factors influencing training effectiveness. Descriptive statistics and weighted ranking analyses were performed using IBM SPSS Statistics version 26.0. Results A total of 115 trainers completed the survey. Most participants worked in community health centres or township hospitals (91.3%, n = 105), and 66.1% (n = 76) had fewer than three years of teaching experience. Clinical thinking in general practice was identified as the highest educational priority by 56.5% (n = 65) of participants and achieved the highest weighted competency score (9.10). Heavy clinical workload (87.0%, n = 100) and insufficient training time (70.4%, n = 81) were the most frequently reported barriers. Demonstration teaching (81.7%, n = 94), case-based learning (79.1%, n = 91), visits to general practitioner teaching bases (93.0%, n = 107), and problem-based learning assessment (80.0%, n = 92) were the preferred educational approaches. Most participants (87.8%, n = 101) were willing to participate in future continuing medical education activities. Conclusions General practitioner trainers prioritised the development of clinical reasoning, communication and practice-oriented competencies over theoretical knowledge alone. Future continuing medical education programmes should incorporate interactive teaching strategies, workplace-based learning, structured assessment and organisational support to strengthen teaching competence and improve the primary health care education.