Defining competency-based evaluation objectives in family medicine: dimensions of competence and priority topics for assessment.

Objective: To develop a definition of competence in family medicine sufficient to guide a review of Certification examinations by the Board of Examiners of the College of Family Physicians of Canada.

Design: Delphi analysis of responses to a 4-question postal survey.

Setting: Canadian family practice.

Examination outcomes for international medical graduates pursuing or completing family medicine residency training in Quebec.

Objective: To review the success of international medical graduates (IMGs) who are pursuing or have completed a Quebec residency training program and examinations.

Design: We retrospectively reviewed IMGs' success rates on the pre-residency Collège des médecins du Québec medical clinical sciences written examination and objective structured clinical examination, as well as on the post-residency Certification Examination in Family Medicine.

Setting: Quebec.

Defining core procedure skills for Canadian family medicine training.

Objective: To create a list of core and enhanced procedures suitable for family medicine training.

Design: Mailed or e-mailed survey using a Delphi technique.

Setting: Randomly selected family physician practices across Canada.

Using standardized patients in licensing/certification examinations: comparison of two tests in Canada.

Background: A new licensing examination for family physicians was introduced in the Province of Quebec, Canada, in 1990. It contains a newly developed, standardized, patient-based objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) used in complementarity with two other instruments (Short Answers Management Problems [SAMPs] and Simulated Office Orals [SOOs]) that have been used for many years by the College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC) for certification purposes. This research studied the criterion validity of the OSCE using the last instruments as criteria.

Large-scale use of an objective, structured clinical examination for licensing family physicians.

Since 1988 in Quebec the completion of a residency training program in family medicine or a specialty and of a comprehensive examination has been necessary to obtain a licence. An objective, structured clinical examination (OSCE) was designed by the Corporation professionnelle des médecins du Québec and Quebec's four medical schools to evaluate the clinical competence of newly trained family physicians. The certification examination of the College of Family Physicians of Canada was added to the OSCE.