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The family physician's role is a difficult one. if it is to be sustained and developed, the general practitioner must become the most educated, the most comprehensively educated, of all the doctors in the Health Service.... SIR DENIS HILL (1969).
Section 1-Introduction The training of postgraduates for general practice is now one of the most extensive and expensive forms of higher medical education in the world. In order to consider its various components it is first necessary to define the terms involved.
Exeter. There are three other part-time generalpractitioner lecturers in the Department. Our vocational training scheme was established in 1974 and currently has 26 trainees on the course, referred to in this essay as 'my' or 'our' course.
Definitions
Three priorities The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Brunel has influenced me greatly in my attitude to postgraduate training. He believes that there are three great priorities for the future now facing all British universities (Bragg, 1975). These are: (1) To improve the critical thinking of all university students, (2) To promote, in the widest sense, human relationships, (3) To improve the health of people throughout the world. Judged by these three criteria, postgraduate training programmes for general practice have a unique significance. It will be argued in this paper that the important aim should be to achieve in the learner a capacity for critical thinking and analysis, regardless of the particular problem facing him at the time. In this sense all training programmes share the same aim. General practice, more than any other branch of medicine, is concerned with relationships, and general practitioners, more than any other doctors in the United Kingdom, are able to enjoy long-term relationships with patients. They therefore have a unique opportunity for exploring factors which promote good human relationships in general and examining relationships between the medical profession and society in particular. Doctors obviously--have a special role in 'promoting health' and primary physicians are in contact with people throughout the world more than other doctors. For these three reasons it can be argued that postgraduate training programmes for general practice should become a high priority for British universities.
Postgraduates will be used literally to mean 'postgraduate', i.e. doctors who have graduated in medicine. This definition therefore includes all provisionallyregistered graduates. General practice is used in the sense understood in the British Isles, and includes all the work of a general practitioner providing 'general medical services' in the National Health Service. Training is defined as a process designed to achieve change in the behaviour of the learner. The postgraduates, the learners, are called, as is usual, 'trainees', those general practitioners who teach them, the 'trainers'. 'The course organisers', or 'university lecturers' are referred to by these titles or collectively as 'teachers'. The word 'should' is used to mean 'ideal' or 'the best available method of training'. 'Patient-centred medicine' is used to mean a personal medical service in which the general practitioner adapts his care and that of his specialist colleagues to the particular needs of an individual patient-to help the patient maintain his own health as much as possible. 'Learner-centred training' is used to mean a personal training course in which the organiser adapts the course and its associated resources to meet the particular needs of an individual learner-to help the learner to learn and maintain his own learning as much as possible. Author This essay is written by a general practitioner in Britain, practising in a provincial city. I am one of three partners in a practice of average size, and had 2,859 patients registered with me through the National Health Service on 1 January 1977. I hold a part-time university appointment as Senior Lecturer in-charge with responsibility for training postgraduates in the Department of General Practice in the Postgraduate Medical Institute of the University of
The family physician's role is a difficult one. if it is to be sustained and developed, the general practitioner must become the most educated, the most comprehensively educated, of all the doctors in the Health Service.... SIR DENIS HILL (1969).
Section 1-Introduction The training of postgraduates for general practice is now one of the most extensive and expensive forms of higher medical education in the world. In order to consider its various components it is first necessary to define the terms involved.
Exeter. There are three other part-time generalpractitioner lecturers in the Department. Our vocational training scheme was established in 1974 and currently has 26 trainees on the course, referred to in this essay as 'my' or 'our' course.
Definitions
Three priorities The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Brunel has influenced me greatly in my attitude to postgraduate training. He believes that there are three great priorities for the future now facing all British universities (Bragg, 1975). These are: (1) To improve the critical thinking of all university students, (2) To promote, in the widest sense, human relationships, (3) To improve the health of people throughout the world. Judged by these three criteria, postgraduate training programmes for general practice have a unique significance. It will be argued in this paper that the important aim should be to achieve in the learner a capacity for critical thinking and analysis, regardless of the particular problem facing him at the time. In this sense all training programmes share the same aim. General practice, more than any other branch of medicine, is concerned with relationships, and general practitioners, more than any other doctors in the United Kingdom, are able to enjoy long-term relationships with patients. They therefore have a unique opportunity for exploring factors which promote good human relationships in general and examining relationships between the medical profession and society in particular. Doctors obviously--have a special role in 'promoting health' and primary physicians are in contact with people throughout the world more than other doctors. For these three reasons it can be argued that postgraduate training programmes for general practice should become a high priority for British universities.
Postgraduates will be used literally to mean 'postgraduate', i.e. doctors who have graduated in medicine. This definition therefore includes all provisionallyregistered graduates. General practice is used in the sense understood in the British Isles, and includes all the work of a general practitioner providing 'general medical services' in the National Health Service. Training is defined as a process designed to achieve change in the behaviour of the learner. The postgraduates, the learners, are called, as is usual, 'trainees', those general practitioners who teach them, the 'trainers'. 'The course organisers', or 'university lecturers' are referred to by these titles or collectively as 'teachers'. The word 'should' is used to mean 'ideal' or 'the best available method of training'. 'Patient-centred medicine' is used to mean a personal medical service in which the general practitioner adapts his care and that of his specialist colleagues to the particular needs of an individual patient-to help the patient maintain his own health as much as possible. 'Learner-centred training' is used to mean a personal training course in which the organiser adapts the course and its associated resources to meet the particular needs of an individual learner-to help the learner to learn and maintain his own learning as much as possible. Author This essay is written by a general practitioner in Britain, practising in a provincial city. I am one of three partners in a practice of average size, and had 2,859 patients registered with me through the National Health Service on 1 January 1977. I hold a part-time university appointment as Senior Lecturer in-charge with responsibility for training postgraduates in the Department of General Practice in the Postgraduate Medical Institute of the University of
