Educational training requirements for general practice/family medicine specialty training: recommendations for trainees, trainers and training institutions

Abstract

High-quality training is a prerequisite to teaching future general practitioners. To inspire and guide all countries to implement General Practice (GP) specialist education and training and bring it to the highest standards, we aimed, within the European context, to produce a collaborative document entitled 'Educational Requirements for GP Specialty Training'. Through an iterative process existing documents from the European Academy of Teachers in GP and Family Medicine (EURACT) and the World Organization of Family Medicine Doctors (WONCA) were collated. Other reports, grey literature about specialty GP training and requirements for trainees, trainers and training institutions were included. State-of-the-art GP specialty training 'core' competences, characteristics and essential features of GP are described. General principles and specified tools for training and assessment are summarised. Recommendations on the duration and place(s) of training and selection of trainees are provided. Trainers should be accredited teachers and quality training institutions are essential. New insights, existing gaps and issues for debate have highlighted areas for further research. This document was produced in the specific context of Europe but its general principles are relevant to GP training in all countries.

Survey participation among general practitioners: comparison between teaching physicians and a random sample

“…All over the world, practicing GPs teach medical students in the discipline of general practice/family medicine in their offices [ 5 – 7 ]. This teaching activity is usually appreciated with a small monetary incentive (estimated 100–200 Euro per week per student in Germany).…”

Teaching and Learning Core Values in General Practice/Family Medicine: A Narrative Review

“…An essential condition for effective GP/FM care is a work force that is highly qualified. In order to achieve this, European specialty training centers for GP/FM can rely on European legislation ( 4 ) and on the EURACT European Training Requirements ( 5 , 6 ). The latter is a recently drafted guideline based on the European definition of GP/FM and the 12 characteristics, six core competences, and three features as expressed by the well-known WONCA tree ( 7 ).…”

Medical education reform in Tajikistan: comparison of the conventional one-year family medicine residency program and the new two-year residency program for postgraduate medical education

“…Until 2013, only a conventional way of training FM doctors had been established referred to as “Internatura”, which comprised an unstructured one-year residency, following graduation from medical school. The duration and content of this training is not in line with international standards as set out by WONCA Europe and its teaching organization, the European Academy of Teachers in General Practice/Family Medicine [ 6 ] but is being offered until today. In 2016, the Tajik government issued a comprehensive Strategic Plan for FM in 2016 which advocated for “…post-graduate specialty training with decentralized and prolonged curriculum (at least from 2 to 3 years), and a system of continuing professional development based on a credit system “ [ 7 ].…”