Which common general practice procedures can postgraduate trainees proficiently perform at the end of their medical studies? - a cross-sectional survey; Welche häufig in der Allgemeinmedizin durchgeführten Prozeduren beherrschen Ärzte in Weiterbildung in ihrer Selbsteinschätzung bereits nach dem Studium?

Abstract

Background Medical education is intended to enable students to become a physician who can practise the profession of medicine on his own authority, responsibility and accountability. In 2015, the competencies required to accomplish this have been described in the National Competency-based Catalogue of Learning Objectives Medicine. The aim of this study was to survey the extent to which the respective medical procedures were learned during medical school. Postgraduate trainees were asked to self-assess their level of proficiency in carrying out procedures commonly performed in family medicine. Methods A questionnaire involving 17 procedures was distributed among 328 postgraduate trainees in family medicine attending training sessions in Baden-Wuerttemberg. Participants could assess the extent to which they were able to independently perform each procedure (ranging from “not able to do it”, “able to do it under direct supervision”, “able to do it if supervision is provided upon request” to “able to do it on my own”, and “able to provide supervision to others” respectively). Respondents that were able to perform procedures without the need for supervision were asked to indicate when they acquired the competency. Data were analysed descriptively. Results A total of 196 postgraduate trainees (59.8%) completed the questionnaire. The average age was 35 years, 71 % of the participants were female. For five out of 17 procedures at least half of the participants regarded themselves as being “able to do it on my own” or “able to provide supervision to others”. The procedure that was most often (52.5 %) named as having been learned in medical school was “otoscopy”, followed by “wound suturing” and “mask ventilation” (42%). Conclusions Following graduation, GP trainees are unable to independently perform the majority of common procedures in family medicine. This indicates that insufficient proficiency in procedural skills is provided in undergraduate medical education, revealing the need for structured, supervised specialty training following graduation. © 2016

Keywords

Author Keywords

medical education Competency-based education General Practice postgraduate training clinical skills medical procedures

Index Keywords

adult clinical competence cross-sectional study female human male questionnaire Cross-Sectional Studies Humans Surveys and Questionnaires education general practice Germany Educational Measurement Family Practice

Author Affiliations

Department of General Medicine and Health Services Research, Universitätsklinikum Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany

Institut für Allgemeinmedizin, Universitätsklinikum Schleswig-Holstein Campus Lübeck, Lubeck, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany

Funding & Acknowledgements

No funding information

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