ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the status of Family Medicine (FM) education, training, and continuing professional development programs in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR). It aims to identify perceptions about the role of nurses in family practice and the need for on-the-job short training courses in the specialty to enhance the knowledge and skills of practicing general practitioners. The EMR faces major gaps and challenges needing urgent attention from governments, policy makers, academic institutions, and all stakeholders including the World Health Organization. Limited information is available on education, training, and Continuing Medical Education programs for family physicians in the EMR. In the EMR, there is a general shortage of training programs that could provide trained human resources to work in FM departments. Strategies can be drawn from existing models in which training in FM has been successfully achieved in a short period of time. Most EMR Member States have significant deficiencies in human resources for health, especially in FM.
