Fundamental Teaching Activities in Family Medicine Framework: Analysis of Awareness and Utilization.

Introduction: In 2015, the College of Family Physicians of Canada, in performing their commitment to supporting its members in their educational roles, created the Family Medicine Framework (FTA). It was designed to assist family medicine educators with an understanding of the core activities of educators: precepting, coaching, and teaching within or beyond clinical settings. Given that an examination of member awareness of FTA has not been previously undertaken, our primary objective was to conduct an evaluation on its utility and application.

Implementing Competency-Based Medical Education in Family Medicine: A Scoping Review on Residency Programs and Family Practices in Canada and the United States.

Background And Objectives: While family medicine has been one of the first specialties to implement competency-based medical education (CBME) in residency, the nature and level of its integration with continuing professional development (CPD) is neither well understood nor well studied. The purpose of this review was to examine the current state of CBME implementation in family medicine residency and CPD programs in the North American education literature, with the aim of identifying implementation concepts and strategies that are generalizable to other medical settings to inform the design and implementation of residency training and CPD.

Methods: Using an Arksey and O'Malley six-step framework, we searched five online databases and the gray literature over the period between January 2000 through April 2017.

Twelve tips for bringing competencies into continuing professional development: Curriculum mapping.

This article was migrated. The article was marked as recommended. There is a growing worldwide awareness in the field of health professions education and research that a successful implementation of competency-based medical education (CBME) requires embracing all stages of professional development (from undergraduate, through residency to continuing education).

Milestones of critical thinking: a developmental model for medicine and nursing.

Critical thinking is essential to a health professional's competence to assess, diagnose, and care for patients. Defined as the ability to apply higher-order cognitive skills (conceptualization, analysis, evaluation) and the disposition to be deliberate about thinking (being open-minded or intellectually honest) that lead to action that is logical and appropriate, critical thinking represents a "meta-competency" that transcends other knowledge, skills, abilities, and behaviors required in health care professions. Despite its importance, the developmental stages of critical thinking have not been delineated for nurses and physicians.

Encouraging residents to seek feedback.

Aim: To explore resident and faculty perceptions of the feedback process, especially residents' feedback-seeking activities.

Methods: We conducted focus groups of faculty and residents exploring experiences in giving and receiving feedback, feedback-seeking, and suggestions to support feedback-seeking. Using qualitative methods and an iterative process, all authors analyzed the transcribed audiotapes to identify and confirm themes.

Deliberative curriculum inquiry for integration in an MD curriculum: Dalhousie University's curriculum renewal process.

Background: Dalhousie University's MD Programme faced a one-year timeline for renewal of its undergraduate curriculum.

Aim: Key goals were renewed faculty engagement for ongoing quality improvement and increased collaboration across disciplines for an integrated curriculum, with the goal of preparing physicians for practice in the twenty-first century.

Methods: We engaged approximately 600 faculty members, students, staff and stakeholders external to the faculty of medicine in a process described by Harris (1993) as 'deliberative curriculum inquiry'.

Two new aspects of continuity of care.

Objective: To determine whether the original continuity of care framework is still applicable to family medicine today.

Design: Qualitative descriptive study.

Setting: Kingston, Ont.

Emotional effects of continuity of care on family physicians and the therapeutic relationship.

Objective: To explore conceptions of continuity of care among family physicians in traditional practices, family medicine-trained physicians working in episodic care, and family medicine residents to better understand the emotional effects on physicians of establishing long-term relationships with patients as a starting point for developing a tool to measure the qualitative connections between physicians and their patients.

Design: Qualitative descriptive study using focus groups.

Setting: Traditional family practice, family medicine residency training, and episodic-care settings in Kingston, Ont.

Continuity of care: differing conceptions and values.

Objective: To understand how the conception of continuity of care can influence family physician trainees by exploring the perspectives of established family physicians, physicians working in episodic care who had been trained in family medicine, and family medicine trainees.

Design: Qualitative analysis of focus group data.

Setting: Southeastern Ontario.

Manual and automated office measurements in relation to awake ambulatory blood pressure monitoring.

Background: Automated blood pressure (BP) devices are commonly used in doctor's offices. How BP measured on these devices relates to ambulatory BP monitoring is not clear.

Objective: To assess how well office-based manual and automated BP predicts ambulatory BP.

A primary care pragmatic cluster randomized trial of the use of home blood pressure monitoring on blood pressure levels in hypertensive patients with above target blood pressure.

Background: The measurement of blood pressure (BP) at home by patients with hypertension is increasingly used to assess and monitor BP. Evidence for its effectiveness in improving BP control is mixed.

Methods: To determine if home BP monitoring improves BP a pragmatic cluster randomized contolled trial was carried out in family practices in southeastern Ontario, Canada.

Effectiveness of a protocol-based strategy for achieving better blood pressure control in general practice.

Background: There continues be a problem with the proportion of treated hypertension patients who are actually at recommended blood pressure targets.

Objective: Is an intensive protocol-based strategy for achieving blood pressure control effective in family practice and will family physicians and their hypertensive patients adhere to such a protocol.

Methods: Design of the study is a cluster randomized controlled trial at the Centre for Studies in Primary Care, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario.

A new model for collaborative continuing professional development.

For collaborative patient-centered practice models to develop, improved collaboration in the workplace is needed. In this project we aimed to create a model of continuing professional development (CPD) using a case based approach that would allow the exchange of information between primary health care providers in the community. Over 60 participants from community care sectors including physicians, nurses and administrators participated in a planning group and two consultation workshops.

Team effectiveness in academic primary health care teams.

Primary health care is undergoing significant organizational change, including the development of interdisciplinary health care teams. Understanding how teams function effectively in primary care will assist training programs in teaching effective interprofessional practices. This study aimed to explore the views of members of primary health care teams regarding what constitutes a team, team effectiveness and the factors that affect team effectiveness in primary care.

The difference between medical students interested in rural family medicine versus urban family or specialty medicine.

Objective: To determine how first-year medical students interested in rural family medicine in Canada differ from their peers.

Method: From 2002 to 2004, first-year students (n = 2189) from 16 classes in 8 Canadian medical schools ranked intended career choices and indicated influences on their choices using Likert scales. We used t tests and chi2 tests to determine demographic influences and factor analysis, and we used analysis of variance to examine associated attitudes.

Ambulatory teaching: do approaches to learning predict the site and preceptor characteristics valued by clerks and residents in the ambulatory setting?

Background: In a study to determine the site and preceptor characteristics most valued by clerks and residents in the ambulatory setting we wished to confirm whether these would support effective learning. The deep approach to learning is thought to be more effective for learning than surface approaches. In this study we determined how the approaches to learning of clerks and residents predicted the valued site and preceptor characteristics in the ambulatory setting.

Assessing the relationship of learning approaches to workplace climate in clerkship and residency.

Purpose: To determine what approaches to learning are adopted by clinical clerks and residents and whether these approaches are associated with demographic factors, specialty, level of training, and perceptions of the workplace climate.

Method: In 2001-02, medical clerks (n = 532) and residents (n = 2,939) at five medical schools in Ontario, Canada, were mailed the Workplace Learning Questionnaire. The correlation between the approaches to learning at work and perceived workplace climate and the influence of gender, age, location, residency program and level of training on outcomes were measured.

Medical Students' and Residents' preferred site characteristics and preceptor behaviours for learning in the ambulatory setting: a cross-sectional survey.

Background: Medical training is increasingly occurring in the ambulatory setting for final year medical students and residents. This study looks to identify if gender, school, level of training, or specialty affects learner's (final year medical students and residents) preferred site characteristics and preceptor behaviours for learning in the ambulatory setting.

Methods: All final year medical students and residents at the five medical schools in Ontario (N = 3471) were surveyed about the site characteristics and preceptor behaviours most enhancing their learning in the ambulatory setting.

Relationship between blood pressure measurements recorded on patients' charts in family physicians' offices and subsequent 24 hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring.

Background: In most western countries 20% of adults have hypertension. Reports in the literature suggest that from 31 to 86% of treated patients are not at recommended target levels. However it is important to consider how we are determining whether targets are unmet and the degree to which they are unmet.