Hands-on - general medicine - circuit-training in the auditorium--a practical equivalent to a lecture.

Introduction: Traditional university teaching formats are of limited use when it comes to conveying the inner workings and specific remit of general medicine in a practical way. Small supervised groups present themselves as a plausible and effective alternative for learning to interact with patients in low prevalence areas.

Description of the project: A frontal lecture was transformed into an interactive seminar-like lecture for 280 students. Short kick-off presentations served as an introduction to rotating circuit stations. Knowledge, skills and professional attitude specific to general and family medicine were intensively trained by 28 small groups in and around the auditorium by means of activating didactic methods. The small groups were supervised by experienced GP's trained as tutors. During six days, consisting of 3.5 hour sessions per day, working methods, a large variety of common medical conditions, preventive primary care and care for the elderly were amongst the topics addressed.

Results: This new format was successfully implemented and developed with regards to content as well as organisation. Well over 90% of the 274 participating students evaluated tutors' commitment, coherent delivery of content, learner-oriented atmosphere and practical focus positively. Given the advantages of a small-group learning situation, the somewhat cramped conditions were accepted by 92%.

Discussion: The innovative concept was able to work successfully within the specific framework of patient care in a general and family medicine setting. A creative approach to the lack of space managed to mobilise resources for practical small-group work. Being able to work on specific general practice problems in a small-group setting and immediately reflect upon them was rated positively overall.

Conclusions: Responsibilities and specific working methods in general practice / family medicine can be trained successfully even with large groups of students when limited space is used creatively. In a supervised circuit-training setting, students are able to apply their existing knowledge and skills in a practical way. Further research is needed to assess individual learning success and gains in competence under this novel learning situation.