Evaluation of Educational Workshops for Family Medicine Residents Using the Kirkpatrick Framework

Background/objectives: Practicing independently in an ambulatory care setting demands mastering the knowledge and skills of commonly performed minor procedures. Educational hands-on activities are one way to ensure competent family medicine practitioners. This study aims to evaluate a minor procedure workshop for family medicine trainees using the Kirkpatrick model for short- and long-term workshop effectiveness and to identify facilitators and obstacles faced by the trainees during their practices to gain procedural skills.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in four-time intervals: during the workshop (pre- and post-workshop), 12 weeks after the workshop to evaluate the short-term effectiveness and change of behavior, and 12 months after the workshop to evaluate the long-term effectiveness of the workshop. Statistical Package for Social Sciences 22 was used for data analysis.

Results: Forty postgraduate trainees (R1-R4) attended the workshop and participated in the survey. Overall, the workshop was accepted and highly perceived by the trainees, and the pre-workshop confidence level was lower than the post-workshop confidence level. The workshop met the expectation of 100% in obstetric and gynecological procedures workshop with 97% satisfaction rate, followed by dermatology (97.5%, 90%), orthopedic (95%, 87%), general surgery (97.5%, 84%), combined ophthalmology and otorhinolaryngology workshop (82.5%, 74%). At 12 weeks, 24 postgraduate trainees (R2-R4) responded to the survey, and low competency occurred with uncommon procedures in practice. At 12 months only 16 trainees (R3-R4) responded to the survey. Learning effect was higher as post-workshop and varied with the passage of time. Changes in the competency level were noticed, with the number of procedures performed being not statistically significant (P> 0.05).

Conclusion: Practicing family medicine in an ambulatory health-care setting safely needs the mastering of minor office procedure skills. Evaluating educational workshops is important to ensure effective outcomes and identify the factors of trainees, supervisors, institutions, and patients that influence or hinder the performance of minor procedures in a family medicine clinic.