Systematic Review of Studies in the Field of Competencies of New or Soon To Be-Graduate General Physicians in Iran

One method to evaluate and monitor the effectiveness of the general medicine curriculum is the collection of results of research in this field. In this study, research results on the extent of predefined general competency in the formal document of the minimum competencies of Iranian general physicians have been systematically integrated. The search strategy in this study included the searching of words doctor, student, interns, or graduate, and ability, competency, knowledge, skill, attitude, or performance, in the title, abstract, or keywords of articles. All papers published from 2002 to 2014 in Persian language journals were retrieved from the Irandoc, Iranmedex, Magiran, Medlib, and SID databases. After the removal of irrelevant or duplicate papers, from 270 recorded papers, 24 articles were selected and analyzed. All studies were descriptive studies and most used self-reporting methods to assess the competency of physicians. Reviewed articles focused on only 48% of subdomains of the formal document of the minimum competencies of physicians. In 70% of assessed skills, physicians’ competencies were estimated as low to moderate. Although these studies did not assess all skills mentioned in the formal document of the minimum competencies of physicians, estimates show that the competencies of general physicians in assessed skills were not desirable. It is recommended that future studies in this field to be managed.