User's Guide

THREADS across the Four Components: ACGME Competency Areas and Areas for Greater Emphasis

Where can I Find X, Y or Z?

SPECIFIC SUGGESTIONS for use of the FOUR COMPONENTS OTHER Tools and Resource

FMCR Project Resource User's Guide
(October 20, 2004)

The Family Medicine Curriculum Resource (FMCR) Project is a four-year (September 2000-October 2004) contract funded by the Division of Medicine and Dentistry, Bureau of Health Professions, Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA Contract No. 240-00-0107) to the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine

This User's Guide has been prepared by the FMCR Project End-Product Steering Committee (Executive Committee Members: Jeffrey Stearns MD, Alexander Chessman MD, Paul Paulman, MD, Ardis Davis MSW, Roger Sherwood CAE; Workgroup Chairs: Christine Matson MD and Ann O'Brien Gonzales PhD) and Kent Sheets PhD, FMCR Curriculum Consultant

FMCR Project Resource Accessible at: http://www.stfm.org/curricular/index.htm

Background and Purpose of this Guide

HRSA Contracted with STFM to produce a RESOURCE MANUAL

The government contracted with the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine (STFM) to produce a curriculum RESOURCE MANUAL, and not a database or Web site.   Hence, the FMCR Project resource is a manual which has been put up on the STFM Web site as an on-line document. During the last few months of contract activity (July-September 2004), the FMCR Project Executive Committee sought expert review of the FMCR Project resource.   Reviewers studied the entire draft resource and provided comment.   These reviewers almost universally recommended improvements to the Web interface.   Because the contract dictated that the end product be limited to a manual, the product is not as easy to use as it will be when it is mounted onto an interactive web site (see below).     

The Family Medicine Curriculum Project Resource is also just that - a RESOURCE. It is not a prescriptive curriculum because the government contracted with STFM to produce a set of resources.   The FMCR was designed in the hope that educators from schools with widely different missions, resources, and curricula can use parts of this tool to create new or modify existing curricula.

The purpose of this USER'S GUIDE, therefore, is to give users some hints as to how to use the FMCR Project resource - as a resource in its current form, which is similar to a simple paper-based manual.   For this Guide, we have drawn on the many comments received to date from both our external reviewers and from the nearly fifty medical education audiences we presented to throughout development of the FMCR Project resource between 2001-2004.

Future User-Friendly Venue for the FMCR Project Resource

The FMCR Project resource will be mounted onto a more interactive, user-friendly, Web-based platform.   Leaders within STFM were awarded a grant from the National Library of Medicine to develop a Family Medicine Digital Resources Library (FMDRL). The FMDRL will offer an interactive database-driven Web site. This site will provide an electronic repository of resources covering medical student education, and also extending to residency education and faculty development.   The FMCR Project resource will comprise the predoctoral component of the larger FMDRL. Besides offering a database-driven Web site that allows easy searching and customizable reports and downloads of needed information, the FMDRL project will establish a system for uploading, reviewing, and preparing new resources for sharing.   The FMDRL will address other issues raised by our reviewers, by providing the ability to post "best practices" or examples of resources from individual institutions and the ability to update the resources easily and continuously.

Current Access of the FMCR Project Resource Manual

The FMCR Project resource manual can be accessed at the STFM Web site at

( http://www.stfm.org/curricular/index.htm )  

The manual has four components:

  1. COLLABORATIVE CURRICULUM PROJECT (PRECLERKSHIP) (developed collaboratively by family medicine, internal medicine and pediatrics) aimed at education of all preclerkship students
  2. FAMILY MEDICINE CLERKSHIP, aimed at education of all students through the family medicine clerkship
  3. POST CLERKSHIP, aimed at education of all students in the post-clerkship year with added emphasis on students bound for family medicine residencies
  4. SPECIAL TOPICS, aimed at all students across the continuum of medical education. Topics include: End-of-Life and Palliative Care, Geriatrics, Genetics, Healthy People 2010, Informatics, Mental Health, Oral Health and Substance Abuse.

The entire resource manual is available in PDF file format . Though the resource remains essentially a paper-based manual, the PDF format provides the ability to navigate more easily. The PDF version has a table of contents and active links within the resource and on the web. The PDF file version can be found at the above STFM Web site.

INDEX OF ITEMS ADDRESSED IN THIS USER'S GUIDE:

THREADS across the Four Components:

  • ACGME Competency Areas
  • Areas for Greater Emphasis

Where can I Find X, Y or Z?

SPECIFIC SUGGESTIONS for use of the FOUR COMPONENTS

OTHER Tools and Resources
 

For questions or comments, please contact Webmaster or Ardis Davis

This page last updated October 22, 2004