Procedural skills training. Canadian family practice residency programs.

OBJECTIVE: To survey Canadian family practice residency programs to discover which procedural skills residents are expected to learn. DESIGN: Cross-sectional eight-item questionnaire. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: The survey was sent to all 92 program directors and site or unit directors of family practice residency programs across Canada. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Information on procedural skills lists was solicited. We sought date of creation, date of most recent revision, and who was involved in creating the list. A copy of the most recent list available was requested. RESULTS: We received 65 responses, for a 71% return rate. Surveys were received from all provinces and from all Canadian universities offering family practice residency programs. We received 24 unique lists of procedural skills: the shortest listed only 10 procedural skills; the longest, 75 skills; and the average, 36 skills. Only five procedural skills were found on more than 80% of the lists; 30 skills were listed on half or more of the lists. CONCLUSIONS: Canadian family practice residency programs have widely varying expectations of procedural skills for their residents. This survey is a first step in examining the whole issue of procedural skills training in Canadian family medicine programs.