Background: Job description for Korean family physicians needs to be verified in a representative sample for practicing family physicians to establish generalizability and popularity. This study was conducted to evaluate the responses of Korean family physicians in their job description by method independently developed by an expert panel and the results were compared with the panelists' consensus.
Methods: For each of the 129 tasks, the importance, the difficulty, and the frequency were checked along the 4-point scale and requirement for entry level was ticked along the binominal response. Sixty eight family physicians completed the questionnaire and the response rate was 20% of 350 eligible family physicians.
Results: Forty six percent of the tasks were rated as "moderately important" and 54% as "little important". One hundred eight tasks (84%) were recognized as competencies necessary for the entry level. Though the general tendency was similar to the consensus of the past job analysis, a few tasks were desired to be excluded (eg., extraction of bronchial secretion) or newly included (e.g., operation for infertility). Nineteen tasks (15%) were rated as less important ones in both groups. Fifteen tasks (12%) were commonly suggested to be excluded from the required tasks in both groups.
Conclusion: As the job description for Korean family physicians has been recognized as a valid one among the representative practicing family physicians, it can be used in general for developing or modifying the curricula of residents and students and continuing education.
