Radon gas-the hidden killer: What is the role of family doctors?

Objective: To create awareness of the dangers of radon gas and to provide family physicians with updated, practical information to help educate patients.

Sources Of Information: MEDLINE (1950 to February 2013), the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (2005 to 2013), and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (2005 to 2013) were searched using relevant terms. Guidelines, position statements, articles, and original research relevant to radon were selected.

Procedural Knowledge and Skills of Residents Entering Canadian Family Medicine Programs in Alberta.

Background And Objectives: Incoming family medicine (FM) residents start residency with different levels of procedural training. Understanding their baseline skill level is necessary to plan the educational experiences and teaching methods that will provide the desired knowledge, skills, and attitudes related to performing medical procedures.

Methods: A survey of 69 procedures based on the core list issued by the College of Family Physicians of Canada was administered to incoming residents in Alberta (Calgary and Edmonton FM programs).

Filling the gaps between theory and daily clinical procedural skills training in family medicine.

Performance of procedures is an integral part of any family physician/general practitioner's practice. Unfortunately, discrepancy occurs between the existing theoretical methods of procedural teaching and the training imparted during real daily practice, which creates gaps that need to be overcome. This article identifies and reviews teaching gaps in family medicine training and presents suggestions to overcome them with a view to forming holistic psychomotor skills based on the learner's characteristics within the patient-centred philosophy of family medicine.

Using Comprehensive Video-Module Instruction as an Alternative Approach for Teaching IUD Insertion.

Background And Objectives: Family medicine clinicians and residents have increasing educational and work demands that have made it difficult to provide and access training on specific procedures such as IUD insertion. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the use of video-module instruction could provide residents with the necessary knowledge and skills to perform an IUD insertion correctly when compared with the traditional form of instruction, which is a lecture-demonstration session provided by an academic gynecologist.

Methods: Thirty-nine family medicine residents participated in the study during the induction period at the beginning of their residency program in July 2012 at the University of Calgary.

Office management of mild head injury in children and adolescents.

Objective: To provide family physicians with updated, practical, evidence-based information about mild head injury (MHI) and concussion in the pediatric population.

Sources Of Information: MEDLINE (1950 to February 2013), the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (2005 to 2013), the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (2005 to 2013), and DARE (2005 to 2013) were searched using terms relevant to concussion and head trauma. Guidelines, position statements, articles, and original research relevant to MHI were selected.