Defining competency-based evaluation objectives in family medicine: procedure skills.

OBJECTIVE To develop evaluation objectives for assessing competence in procedure skills using a key-features approach. This was part of a multiyear project to develop competency-based evaluation objectives for Certification in Family Medicine. DESIGN Nominal group technique. SETTING The College of Family Physicians of Canada in Mississauga, Ont. PARTICIPANTS An expert group of 7 family physicians and 1 educational consultant, all of whom had experience in assessing competence in family medicine. Group members represented the Canadian context with respect to region, sex, language, community type, and experience. METHODS Using a nominal group technique, the expert group developed the general key features for procedure skills. The expert group also linked the key features to already established skill dimensions in the domain of competence, to the 4 principles of family medicine, and to the CanMEDS roles. MAIN FINDINGS The general key features were developed after 5 iterations. Ten key features were outlined and were shown to reflect all the essential skill dimensions in the domain of competence for family medicine. The key features were linked to 2 of the 4 principles of family medicine and to 4 of the CanMEDS roles. CONCLUSION The general key features for procedure skills were developed to assess competence in procedure skills in family medicine.