Preparing the personal physician for practice (P(4)): redesigning family medicine residencies: new wine, new wineskins, learning, unlearning, and a journey to authenticity.

Abstract

The family medicine community has come together in the Future of Family Medicine Project in an attempt to be clear about its work and values and to address the frustrations of both its own practitioners and the public. A new model has been proposed, offering several attractive features for both patients and practitioners. The project has generated momentum around the notion that it is really possible to redesign family medicine residency programs. This article reviews assumptions about the redesign and 10 interventions in 3 categories. The categories are both familiar and new, and knowledge, skills, and attitudes are reframed. The interventions include learning portfolios, a curriculum that goes beyond rotations, becoming explicit about locally useful knowledge, getting discretion and discipline right, linking evaluations to system improvement, attention to the science of clinical practice, simulation, validating resident feelings, educating to mastery, and attention to group and individual formation.