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Teaching-skills training programs for family medicine residents

Systematic review of formats, content, and effects of existing programs

Savithiri Ratnapalan, MB BS MEd MRCP FRCPC
Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics and the Department of Public Health Sciences at the University of Toronto and a staff physician in the Department of Pediatric Emergency Medicine and the Department of Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto

Correspondence Dr Lacasse, Département de médecine familiale et de médecine d’urgence, Université Laval, Pavillon Ferdinand-Vandry, 1050 rue de la Médecine, local 1432, Quebec, QC G1V 0A6; telephone 418 656-2131, extension 7088; fax 418 656-5252; e-mailmiriam.lacasse{at}mfa.ulaval.ca

OBJECTIVE To review the literature on teaching-skills training programs for family medicine residents and to identify formats and content of these programs and their effects.

DATA SOURCES  Ovid MEDLINE (1950 to mid-July 2008) and the Education Resources Information Center database (pre-1966 to mid-July 2008) were searched using and combining the MeSH terms teaching, internship and residency, and family practice; and teaching, graduate medical education, and family practice.

STUDY SELECTION  The initial MEDLINE and Education Resources Information Center database searches identified 362 and 33 references, respectively. Titles and abstracts were reviewed and studies were included if they described the format or content of a teaching-skills program or if they were primary studies of the effects of a teaching-skills program for family medicine residents or family medicine and other specialty trainees. The bibliographies of those articles were reviewed for unidentified studies. A total of 8 articles were identified for systematic review. Selection was limited to articles published in English.

SYNTHESIS  Teaching-skills training programs for family medicine residents vary from half-day curricula to a few months of training. Their content includes leadership skills, effective clinical teaching skills, technical teaching skills, as well as feedback and evaluation skills. Evaluations mainly assessed the programs’ effects on teaching behaviour, which was generally found to improve following participation in the programs. Evaluations of learner reactions and learning outcomes also suggested that the programs have positive effects.

CONCLUSION Family medicine residency training programs differ from all other residency training programs in their shorter duration, usually 2 years, and the broader scope of learning within those 2 years. Few studies on teaching-skills training, however, were designed specifically for family medicine residents. Further studies assessing the effects of teaching-skills training in family medicine residents are needed to stimulate development of adapted programs for the discipline. Future research should also assess how residents’ teaching-skills training can affect their learners’ clinical training and eventually patient care.