Tying it all together? A competency-based linkage model for family medicine

Residency faculty in all specialties will be required by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) to fully implement competencies into residency programs by 2006. Understanding the new requirements is complicated by having several sets of guiding documents from different sources, including the general competencies of the ACGME, the Residency Review Committee for Family Practice requirements, the competencies developed by the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine, and the Recommended Curriculum Guidelines for Family Practice Residents by the American Academy of Family Physicians. A competency linkage model brings together the various guidelines and shows specifically how they are related. This model helps family practice residency faculty better understand the guiding expectations for their programs and develop more appropriate learning objectives and assessment methods.