As a result of Malta’s entry to the European
Union in 2004, Family Medicine was recognised as a
speciality and subsequently a three-year programme of
Specialist Training was launched in 2007 by the Primary
Health Care Department and the Malta College of Family
Doctors. By 2012, three cohorts of GP trainees had
completed the training programme. Evaluation is important in ensuring quality
and success in provision of teaching programmes in general,
and family-doctor training in particular. While evaluation
and improvement of the programme is performed on an
ongoing basis, a comparison of the trainees’ evaluations of
the first (2007-8) and fifth (2011-2) years of the training
programme was carried out in order to identify areas where
consolidation or further improvement was needed. Evaluation forms are completed by trainees
after each post in family or hospital practice and after
each group-teaching session. The information from these
forms is transcribed into MS Excel to enable quantitative
and qualitative analysis. The feedback given during the
period 2007 – 2008 was compared with that given during
2011 – 2012. During the first and fifth years of the training
programme, GP trainees were 80-90% satisfied with the
effectiveness of the training provided during the family
practice posts, and over 90% satisfied with the presentation,
content and relevance of the teaching provided during the
group teaching sessions. Their overall satisfaction with the
effectiveness of training in the other specialities improved
from 53-92% to 65-95%. While GP trainees’ satisfaction with their
training generally remained high or improved, specific areas
were identified in family medicine and hospital placements
where changes for improvement are merited.peer-reviewe