Procedural skills in general practice vocational training - what should be taught?

Aust Fam Physician. 2011 Jan-Feb;40(1-2):50-4.

Abstract

Background: A list of procedural skills is an important component of a curriculum for general practice vocational training. This study aimed to establish an up-to-date list of core procedural skills that doctors undergoing general practice vocational training should be taught.

Method: A Delphi process was used to rank the importance of 185 general practice procedures. In 2009, 31 general practitioners took part in a two round Delphi process. A 4-point Likert scale was used to rate the importance of each procedure in vocational training.

Results: Mean rating scores for all the procedural items listed were determined, and a core list of 112 procedures was agreed on the basis of the relative importance of procedures determined by the Delphi participants.

Discussion: The ranked list of clinical procedures provides a resource to form the basis of a procedures training curriculum which can be adapted to different general practice training contexts.

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Australia
  • Clinical Competence*
  • Curriculum*
  • Delphi Technique
  • Education, Medical, Graduate
  • Family Practice / education*
  • Female
  • General Practitioners
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Program Development
  • Surveys and Questionnaires / standards
  • Teaching*