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See one. Do one. Teach one.

Office-based minor surgical procedures

Charles Czarnowski, David Ponka, Ravi Rughani and Paul Geoffrion
Canadian Family Physician June 2008; 54 (6) 893;
Charles Czarnowski
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David Ponka
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Ravi Rughani
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Paul Geoffrion
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Family doctors who regularly perform office-based minor surgical procedures for their patients have demonstrated increased satisfaction in their practices.1 Procedural work provides an interesting complement to primary care, as it involves hands-on work with immediately apparent results. It can also reduce waiting times for patients, thus promoting patient satisfaction.

For the past 10 years, the Department of Family Medicine at the Élisabeth Bruyère Family Medicine Centre in Ottawa, Ont, has run mandatory surgical teaching clinics for our family medicine residents. Residents participate in a half-day of teaching and performing office-based procedures during their in-unit rotations, for a total of 20 clinics during the 2-year residency program.

Our semistructured curriculum revolves around specific cases seen; however, we also give structured lessons at each weekly clinic. We emphasize the importance of proper technique, documentation, and knowing one’s limits. To help teach the more hands-on topics, we use a video instruction series filmed in our clinic. These videos, which have proven to be a popular addition to our teaching program, complement and standardize the exposure to various cases among residents.

The first of these teaching videos—”Shave Biopsy and Skin Tag Removal”—is now available on-line through the Canadian Family Physician website at www.cfp.ca. See the CFPlus box at the end of this article for instructions on how to access the video. A new video will be made available on-line with each of the next 5 issues of Canadian Family Physician.

We welcome practitioners and teaching units to use these videos for pedagogic purposes. We’ve made these videos available on-line to encourage others to set up similar surgical procedure teaching programs. Minor procedures should remain a standard part of primary care practice, as they are beneficial for patients, lower health care costs, and lead to increased satisfaction among family doctors.

Minor Surgery Video Series

Shave biopsy and skin tag removal

Punch biopsy

Elliptical excision

Lipoma removal

Epidermal and pilar cyst removal

Toenail resection

Figure

Video 1
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Video 1

Shave biopsy and skin tag removal

Acknowledgment

We thank Mr Danny Covey for his expert help with staging and his acting roles in this series.

Footnotes

  • Competing interests

    None declared

  • Copyright© the College of Family Physicians of Canada

Reference

  1. ↵
    RivetCRyanBStewartMHands on. Is there an association between doing procedures and job satisfaction?Can Fam Physician20075392-3.e15Available from: www.cfp.ca/cgi/reprint/53/1/92Accessed 2008 May 8
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Canadian Family Physician: 54 (6)
Canadian Family Physician
Vol. 54, Issue 6
1 Jun 2008
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See one. Do one. Teach one.
Charles Czarnowski, David Ponka, Ravi Rughani, Paul Geoffrion
Canadian Family Physician Jun 2008, 54 (6) 893;

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Canadian Family Physician Jun 2008, 54 (6) 893;
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