A global 'Common Core' framework for family medicine faculty development: Getting the right person, doing the right thing, right!

Abstract

Background:  Family medicine is a medical speciality with a global reach, with common core principles but significant regional variations in training pathways, certification and recognition and clinical practice.

Aim:  Partly because of the differences in how family medicine is defined and practised in different areas, there are no existing globally informed guidelines on how to prepare family medicine faculty. This study aims to address this need.

Setting:  This study was conducted with an expert group composed of family medicine faculty development experts from across the world.

Methods:  A modified Delphi survey, grounded in a constructivist paradigm, was used to obtain consensus from family medicine faculty development experts representing a diverse range of geographical regions. We applied a combined approach to framework analysis, identifying themes deductively from an existing framework for general clinical educator development, as well as inductively from the comments of study participants. We analysed these responses using thematic analysis.

Results:  The final framework for family medicine faculty development includes three domains, encompassing the technical skills, knowledge and interpersonal approach, and professional role modelling expected of a family medicine educator.

Conclusion:  This study offers a novel framework for ensuring quality in the educators who are training the next generation of family medicine physicians.Contribution: Developed through consensus of a global expert team, this framework offers specific recommendations regarding technical skills, knowledge, philosophical approaches and professionalism, while offering sufficient flexibility to be applied in a wide array of regions and settings, reflecting the practice of family medicine itself.