Practice Management Prep for family medicine residents

The response from Dr Blais¹ to Dr Schipper’s September 2020 President’s Message² addresses an important aspect of the College of Family Physicians of Canada’s (CFPC’s) new practice management tool—Practice Management Prep (PM Prep)—that would likely benefit from some additional context. Practice Management Prep is intended to be used in addition to the existing practice management curriculum offered in residency programs and by other stakeholder organizations in Canada.

As Dr Schipper noted, PM Prep was developed in response to feedback from new-in-practice physicians that the business side of running a family practice, such as managing finances, medical-legal questions, and contract negotiations, posed the greatest challenge, and they wanted more training in those areas during residency.

When looking to address these gaps, the CFPC first sought to understand what was already being done as part of residency training for practice management. All programs reported practice management training being delivered in some capacity over the 2 years of residency, often in concert with key stakeholder organizations including Joule and the Canadian Medical Protective Association (CMPA). However, despite the existing training, early-in-practice family physicians reported they felt unprepared for practice management and that they were often unaware of the resources available to them, or that the time required to identify and locate necessary resources posed a substantial barrier to accessing those resources once they were in practice.

When consulted by the working group, program directors indicated that there was limited time to dedicate to additional practice management training within the existing curriculum. As a result, the working group set out to develop a self-guided resource that could be completed independently, but that could also be optionally enhanced through coaching at existing intervals (eg, the periodic review) with the support of residency programs.

After completing a PM Prep activity that consists of a brief reflection on key practice management topics and creation of a learning plan, learners are encouraged to review identified resources that have been paired with the specific reflection question, and to discuss their reflection. Ideally, they would discuss the topic with their preceptor or a faculty member at their program as time allows, but alternatively with a mentor, peer, or peer group, to deepen their reflection. The CFPC also offered 2 virtual peer consultations in February 2021, providing opportunities for residents to connect with their First Five Years in Family Practice colleagues to ask questions about practice management and transitioning to practice.

In addition to the self-reflections, through the support of stakeholders like Joule, the CMPA, and the CFPC Chapters, PM Prep includes a repository of resources by topic for learners to refer to at any time, including once they transition to independent practice. We are also exploring carrying out continued virtual learning opportunities with Joule and the CMPA to meet our resident and First Five Years in Family Practice practice management needs. Our hope is that this tool will help residents think about and discuss practice management topics earlier in training and throughout their residency. The aim is that they will leave training aware of practice management resources available and accessible to them.

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