This score was then converted from continuous data to categorical data and the units were ranked into three categories: more broad, moderately broad and less broad scope of practice.
As an information-intensive specialty without patient limits of age, gender, or medical presentation, family physicians require a number of different resources to cover the broad scope of practice.
One of the challenges that faces critical care physicians is staying up to date with the current state of knowledge, in a field that has a broad scope of practice and time dependency for many of the interventions provided.
For example, McDonald et al. [ 23] found that out of 647 respondents, 34.3% of North American chiropractors surveyed classified themselves as practising within a "broad" scope of practice (i.e. the often described chiropractic 'mixer'), 19.3% were "focused scope" (or the often described 'straight' chiropractors), and the remaining 46.4% identified themselves somewhere inbetween.
Phillips and Bazemore recently surveyed the world's literature on "primary care", and found that it is characterized ideally by relationships between patients and teams of providers that endure over time, offers a broad scope of practice, health care integration, and transition management, and works closely with community support services as well.
Rural surgeons need efficient and targeted continuing medical education that matches their broader scope of practice.
However, we might expect rural physicians to have an even broader scope of practice particularly where they are more distant from other specialists and/or allied health services.
On the other hand, there are few studies about the benefits of comprehensiveness, although the fact that family physicians cover a broader scope of practice compared to specialists has been well accepted.
In Canada, primary care midwives have a broader scope of practice which means they continue to provide care to women who need medical interventions for moderate risk indications, such as meconium stained liquor [ 26].
Because of the broad scope of family practice and the exponential increase in medical knowledge, mastery of technology is a core skill for family practice.
