[Group-based learning in continuing education in general practice. A further experiences with the working method in a...

We are seven general practitioners who have developed and tested a two-year programme to follow up the group-based training programme for general practice in Norway. The basic idea is to learn by reflecting on one's own consultations with patients. All consultations are registered by each doctor on a special form which allows both a narrative description of the consultation and a formal registration of data, including reasons for contact, diagnostic considerations, the doctor's attempts to elicit the patient's concerns and provide information, and specification of the doctor's satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the consultation. The material is shared and deepened at monthly group meetings. Simple statistical analysis is used. Each doctor also shows videotaped consultations to the group. Our learning has taken place at four levels: clinical medicine, knowledge about one's own practice and about general practice as a discipline, and experience of collecting and analyzing clinical data. We conclude that the programme is enjoyable and feasible, we recommend it to other groups.