{
  "abstract": "Background: South Africa introduced a 6-month rotation in family medicine (FM) as part of the 2-year internship. This necessitated a restructuring of the traditional hospital rotations. It is not known if the new rotation is meeting the goals set by the Health Professions Council of South Africa. The aim was to evaluate the new FM rotation for medical interns in South Africa.\n\nMethods: A descriptive cross-sectional survey of 260 interns, 74 supervisors across 34 intern programmes in all provinces of South Africa in 2025. Quantitative data were collected using a validated questionnaire, distributed using Redcap, and analysed descriptively in the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences.\n\nResults: Most interns ‘strongly agreed’ that they learnt how to refer patients (57.8%), how to manage people with chronic conditions (55.7%), and to take greater responsibility for clinical decision-making (53.9%). Most interns also ‘agreed’ that they learnt to coordinate care between the district and referral hospitals (72.8%), to consider the patient’s perspective (70.5%) and context (67.8%), to manage undifferentiated conditions (68.3%) and to rationalise prescribing (62.7%). Most interns reported little exposure to palliative care (58.2%), community-based services (56.0%) and quality improvement (50.2%). A substantial proportion reported little exposure to public health medicine (42.2%), continuity of care (26.2%) and forensic medicine (24.4%).\n\nConclusion: The intern rotation in FM is fulfilling its promise in developing junior doctors who are fit for purpose and better able to cope with the community service year, with some specific areas for improvement.\n\nContribution: The findings confirm the value of the rotation and should guide quality improvement.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Division of Family Medicine and Primary Care, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University, Cape Town, South Africa",
    "Department of Family Medicine and Rural Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Walter Sisulu University, Mthatha, South Africa",
    "Department of Family Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, Nelson Mandela University, Gqeberha, South Africa",
    "Department of Family Medicine, School of Medicine, College of Health Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa",
    "Division of Family Medicine, Department of Family, Community and Emergency Care, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa"
  ],
  "article_type": "research article",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 4,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Robert J. Mash",
      "orcid": "0000-0001-7373-0774"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        1,
        2
      ],
      "name": "Febisola Ajudua",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-3419-9092"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        3
      ],
      "name": "Mergan Naidoo",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-4287-1168"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        4
      ],
      "name": "Klaus B. von Pressentin",
      "orcid": "0000-0001-5965-9721"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/a587bzwc34e01.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.4102/safp.v68i1.6363",
  "fulltext_url": "https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC13748528/",
  "id": "a587bzwc34e01",
  "issns": [
    "2078-6190",
    "2078-6204"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://doi.org/10.4102/safp.v68i1.6363",
  "language": "en",
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "heading",
      "Original Research"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "3304|Innovations in Medical Education"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7221625273",
  "pdf_url": null,
  "pmcid": "PMC13748528",
  "pmid": "43000725",
  "published": "2026-10-15",
  "publisher": "AOSIS",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/a587bzwc34e01.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-11-13T12:26:31Z",
      "native_id": "PMC13748528",
      "source": "pmc",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.4102/safp.v68i1.6363"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "medicine",
      "origin": "journal-openalex:F27",
      "subfield": "general"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Evaluation of the family medicine intern rotation in South Africa: A cross-sectional survey",
  "title_text": "Evaluation of the family medicine intern rotation in South Africa: A cross-sectional survey",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-11-13T12:26:31Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/a587bzwc34e01",
  "venue": "South African Family Practice",
  "versions": []
}