The teaching of family medicine and general practice should aim to develop an appreciation of the unique nature and role of the specialty. Teachers should relate patient cases to the principles of family medicine. These principles include (1) compassionate care; (2) a generalist/holistic approach focusing on the whole person, family, and community; (3) continuity of relationship, i.e., building a patient-physician bond of trust; (4) reflective mindfulness; and (5) lifelong learning. The curriculum, instructional strategy, and assessment should be carefully aligned. Core competencies include patient-centered communication, physical examination skills, clinical procedures, palliative care, humanities in medicine, holistic care, shared decision-making, family therapy, home and community visits, chronic disease care, problem-based documentation, team-based care, data-driven improvement, information mastery, ethics and professionalism, and work-life balance. Family medicine/general practice is defined as the medical specialty that manages common and long-term illnesses, focusing on overall health and well-being. Hence, clerkship schedules should maximize clinical exposure and opportunities for self-reflection. A learner-centered approach should begin with a self-identified inventory of learning needs based on the curriculum; next, these needs should be chosen as topics for student presentations. Teaching methods should include mini-workshops: a combination of didactic lectures and small-group exercises. Individual face-to-face formative feedback should occur at midcourse and culminate in a group reflection on the learning experience. Clinical supervision should gradually decrease as each resident demonstrates safe patient care. Procedure skills training should be closely supervised, formally documented, and constitute about one-fourth of learning sessions.
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Background This study aims to create a comprehensive list of essential topics and procedural skills for family medicine residency training in Korea.
Methods Three e-mailed surveys were conducted. The first and second surveys were sent to all board-certified family physicians in the Korean Academy of Family Medicine (KAFM) database via e-mail. Participants were asked to rate each of the topics (117 in survey 1, 36 in survey 2) and procedures (65 in survey 1, 19 in survey 2) based on how necessary it was to teach it and personal experience of utilizing it in clinical practice. Agreement rates of the responses were calculated and then sent to the 32 KAFM board members in survey 3. Opinions on potential cut-off points to divide the items into three categories and the minimum achievement requirements needed to graduate for each category were solicited.
Results Of 6,588 physicians, 256 responded to the first survey (3.89% response rate), 209 out of 6,669 to the second survey (3.13%), and 100% responded to the third survey. The final list included 153 topics and 81 procedures, which were organized into three categories: mandatory, recommended, and optional (112/38/3, 27/33/21). For each category of topics and procedures, the minimum requirement for 3-year residency training was set at 90%/60%/30% and 80%/60%/30%, respectively.
Conclusion This national survey was the first investigation to define essential topics and procedures for residency training in Korean family medicine. The lists obtained represent the opinions of Korean family physicians and are expected to aid in the improvement of family medicine training programs in the new competency-based curriculum.
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Competency-Based Residency Training and the Development of Competencies and Entrustable Professional Activities for Family Medicine in South Korea Yon Chul Park, Danbi Lee, Seung Guk Park, Yonghwan Kim Korean Journal of Family Practice.2025; 15(2): 77. CrossRef
Comparison of Domestic and Foreign Family Medicine Residency Education and Training Systems Seung Guk Park Korean Journal of Family Practice.2025; 15(2): 89. CrossRef
Strengthening Evaluation-Based Resident Training through a Review of Overseas Family Medicine Residency Evaluation Systems Yonghwan Kim, Danbi Lee, Yon Chul Park Korean Journal of Family Practice.2025; 15(2): 84. CrossRef
Background This study was conducted to survey the current status of family medicine residency programs and to evaluate the difficulties in training of the curriculums. Methods: Questionnaires on residency programs were sent to all the centers of residency programs by mail in April 2006. The questionnaire included detailed characteristics of residency programs, curriculum schedule, reasons for failed specific curriculum, and review and measures by the program center and the Korean Academy of Family Medicine to resolve problematic curriculums. Results: A total of 113 residency programs responded. Among the 93 residency programs except for the 20 subsidiary hospitals, inadeguate subjects were mainly dermatology (12 programs, 12.3%), psychiatry (6 programs, 7.5%), ophthalmology (5 programs, 7.1%), and otolaryngology (5 programs, 7.1%). Training rejection rate was higher in dermatology (13 programs, 14.4%), radiology (11 programs, 13.1%), gastrofibroscopy (8 programs, 9.5%), and psychiatry (5 programs, 6.2%). Emergency me-dicine in 4 programs and general surgery in 3 programs had a longer duration of training than initially planned. Difficulties in training some subjects were due to failed establishment of specific curriculums in non-university hospital. Commonly established clinics were health promotion center, obesity clinic, smoking cessation clinic, geriatric clinic, stress clinic, and clinical nutrition clinic. Family medicine center programs included gastrofibroscopy, obesity, smoking cessation, geriatrics, hospice care, and evidence-based medicine. Conclusion: There is repeated demand for taking measures to promote better curriculum in the nation-wide view of family medicine. Dermatology, radiology, psychiatry, and otolaryngology were the subjects difficult to receive training. Measures to strengthen the weak subjects are urgently needed. (J Korean Acad Fam Med 2007;28: 367-374)
Background : In order to provide basic data which are necessary for the standard reference of residency training program in family medicine, we analysed of family practice residency program in Korea(the core curriculum) which has 313 items - diseases and problems - proposed by the Korean Academy of Family Medicine.
Methods : Each item of the core curriculum of family practice residency program in Korea was sorted according to ICD-10. They were the most compared to common 100 diseases and clinical cases in family medicine department of a tertiary hospital in one year. The most common 100 diseases were listed according to ICD-10, also. But some items which were difficult to sort were excluded. Eighty eight types of diseases were sorted. Clinical data of a tertiary hospital included 9138 cases.
Results : Comparing to clinical cases of a tertiary hospital, the core curriculum includes 93.2% cases of family medicine department of a tertiary hospital. Among the 17 fields of the core curriculum, 12 fields were found in about 50% or more among cases of the clinic and 5 fields were in less than 50%. Among 88 diseases, the core curriculum includes 78 diseases. 10 diseases were excluded. In the most common 100 diseases, 12 diseases were related to trauma and the core curriculum did not include them.
Conclusion : Generally the core curriculum included highly prevalent diseases, but did not include some diseases which is important. Revision to make up for the weak points in the current core curriculum may be necessary.