Teaching Family-Oriented Care to Family Medicine Residents: Evaluation of a Family Skills Curriculum

Introduction: Family-oriented care is at the heart of family medicine (FM) practice, yet research suggests an unmet need for family skills training in FM residencies. The purpose of this study is to evaluate family-oriented (FO) attitudes and observed skills of FM residents before and after completion of a longitudinal family skills curriculum. Method: We assessed FO attitudes and observed skills of second-year FM residents (N = 12) using the "Family in Medicine" Q-sort exercise (Q-sort) and the Family-Centered Observation Form (FCOF) before and after completion of the family systems "Practicum" portion of a 20-week psychosocial medicine curriculum. Residents were observed in 19 pre- and 15 post-Practicum encounters. Results: With regard to attitudes, 10 of 12 (83%) residents had a moderate to strong affinity for the FO viewpoint pre-Practicum; 9 of 12 (75%) maintained or strengthened their FO viewpoint post-Practicum. With regard to observed skills, FO visit content increased post-Practicum; 10/15 (67%) post-Practicum encounters included FO comments or questions compared to 5/19 (26%) pre-Practicum encounters. Discussion: In this curriculum evaluation, we found our FM residents to have strong baseline FO attitudes that generally became stronger after a family skills curriculum. FO behaviors increased post-Practicum, though were still demonstrated relatively infrequently, which may be related to a variety of factors. Future directions include increasing experiential FO learning opportunities during Practicum and revising and validating the FCOF. Public Significance Statement Family-oriented care is central to the practice of family medicine and associated residency training. This study serves to evaluate family medicine residents' family-oriented attitudes and skills before and after completion of a longitudinal family skills curriculum.