A curriculum in practical clinical skills for family medicine residents

The teaching of practical clinical skills to medical students and residents has been traditionally taught on an unstructured basis. This has led to situations in which physicians have been expected to perform manual procedures without adequate prior exposure or instruction. As a result of this perceived deficit in training, a curriculum has been designed to prepare new family medicine residents for some of the procedures they will be expected to perform in their first year of training. These procedures include airway management and endotracheal intubation, orthopedic casting, use of outlet forceps, suturing, and cardiopulmonary resuscitation.