Identifying the content of family medicine for educational purposes: an empirical approach

In this article, the authors present a method to assist in curriculum planning and report an application of the method at one institution. Through interviews of 40 selected subjects, the authors identified 27 content elements appropriate for inclusion in a family medicine curriculum for medical students. These elements were organized into four areas portraying family medicine as "a synthesis of content and process," "a field of inquiry," "a career and peer group," and "a value system." A questionnaire employing the method of pair-comparisons was subsequently completed by 38 of the interview subjects, and on the basis of these responses priorities were assigned to content elements within each area. For three of the four areas, there was statistically significant consensus about the priority orderings. Over three years, the content elements themselves and their priority orderings have proved beneficial to curricular planning at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine.