Community-oriented primary care in a family practice residency program

The practice of medicine needs to include disease prevention, health promotion, community health, and clinical epidemiology. Community-oriented primary care (COPC) can be used as an educational strategy to develop competencies in these areas.

An interdisciplinary team that included public health representatives was created to teach COPC principles to family practice residents and supervise their community projects. Allied health and nursing graduate students were also involved in the process. Projects were implemented in collaboration with community representatives.

Family practice residents and community representatives were positive about working together. The family practice residents appreciated the interdisciplinary experience and reported that the COPC model will be useful to them in the future. However, the program's didactic phase was insufficient to provide adequate skills for use of the COPC process. The program could benefit from more involvement of medical students and students in other health professions.

The program encountered several significant obstacles such as competing clinical priorities, limited health education skills, and inadequate project evaluations. Despite the challenges, the family practice residents, as well as the interdisciplinary faculty, health science graduate students, and community representatives, reported a positive experience.