Understanding the Procedural Skills Needed in Rural Pediatric Practices: A Survey of Rural Pediatric Providers in the State of New Mexico.

Objectives: There is little data evaluating procedural skills in current rural pediatric practices. In order to prepare a cadre of pediatricians to work in rural settings, we require an understanding of the unique procedural skills needed by rural pediatric providers. Our objective was to determine how often pediatricians performed various procedural skills, determine the importance of these skills to current practice, and how they differ between rural and urban pediatric providers.

Methods: A survey evaluating pediatrician utilization of the 13 required Accreditation Council Graduate Medical Education procedural skills in current practice was developed and distributed to pediatric providers in New Mexico. Descriptive statistics were used to profile participants and describe survey responses. Chi-square tests were used to evaluate differences by urban setting or IHS. Fisher's exact test was employed to assess differences if cell sizes were less than five. All p-values were two sided with alpha=.05. Benjamini-Hochberg method was used to control for type 1 errors.

Results: Fifty-two of 216 pediatric providers responded. The majority surveyed performed each of the 13 procedures less than monthly but competency in many of these procedures is important. Thirty-two respondents submitted free-text responses recommending competence with tracheostomy changes, gastrostomy-tube changes/cares, and circumcision.

Conclusion: Majority of surveyed pediatricians performed the required procedures less than monthly but deemed several procedures to be important. Rural pediatricians recommended specific procedural skills needed in rural practice. All trainees receive procedural skills training. However, trainees interested in rural practice may need additional training in specific skills different than their non-rural counterparts.