Developing a set of quality criteria for community-based medical education in the UK.

Context: General practices educate increasing numbers of learners at various stages. Criteria for educational provision exist, but practices supporting learners at different stages and from different institutions might face different criteria.

Methods: Criteria for practice-based teaching were developed at a workshop at a national conference. An online Delphi questionnaire invited educationalists to label these criteria as 'essential', 'desirable' or 'unnecessary' for 'occasional', 'intensive' and 'foundation year' teaching. Two rounds of the Delphi were completed. The views about the criteria of a range of stakeholders were explored using focus groups and telephone interviews.

Results: We generated 76 criteria in five domains; physical environment, learning environment, tutor characteristics, patient involvement and departmental responsibilities. Stakeholders' views differed concerning the merits of criteria and which should take greatest priority. None felt that developing such a list was inappropriate. They proposed no new criteria to add to those identified in the Delphi process.

Conclusion: To the best of our knowledge this is the first nationally derived list of criteria, capable of being used in both undergraduate and postgraduate practice-based medical education. These criteria can provide a benchmark against which to set local criteria.