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

Abstract

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.

Keywords:

• Procedural skills
• minor surgery
• teaching
• family medicine
• general practice
• psychomotor skills
• procedures

Acknowledgements

I thank Dr Jocelyn Lockyer and Dr Heather Armson for their contribution to this article.