RESUMO
For a number of years not enough attention has been paid to training in practical skills, neither in pre- nor postgraduate medical education. Lack of training and experience poses particular problems for the general practitioner, who often works alone with little opportunity for assessment by and feedback from colleagues. The Clinical Skills Training Centre was established to develop and implement methods for training general practitioners in clinical skills. Its main objective is to develop teaching methods that will encourage doctors to adapt their professional behaviour as and when necessary. The centre has developed a series of short, 2-day courses for small groups of 10-12 participants where focus is on selected clinical topics. The courses are continuously evaluated including assessment by the participants themselves of their procedural proficiency. Results are encouraging, with the majority of doctors reporting implementation of one or more of the relevant procedures at the final evaluation. An interesting new concept is a programme of reciprocal visits among groups of 10 to 12 general practitioners. The intention of the programme is to break the isolation of the consultation and utilize the potential for learning that exists when colleagues are able to observe each other at work and draw on each other's experiences.
