FORUM Vocational Training - against Mere Chance and Arbitrariness - a Contribution to Develop a Vocational Training Group

To support vocational trainees on their way to a GP in practice having sole responsibility, the Department of General Practice and Health Services Research, University Hospital Heidelberg, organised the Forum Vocational Training”(FORUM). The FORUM is a cost free seminar taking place monthly since 2005. Care is being taken to avoid any influence by pharmaceutical companies. It is a very well evaluated colloquium open for vocational trainees, medicine students in their final year and young specialist in general medicine. Topics are chosen with respect to the needs of the participants. The FORUM is structured to promote active cooperation on the side of the participitants, and to maintain the GPs perspective on primary care. Experts holding the seminars are recruited in the field of visiting lecturers of the department, but also from other departments or professions. The content of the sessions partly covered the curricula of Vocational Training in General Medicine of the different federal medical associations in Germany, partly they were complemented by topics relevant to practice like communication or contract law. The positive evaluations reflect acceptance as well as the need of trainees for this type of seminars. The FORUM can be regarded as a variant of the vocational training groups in the sense of the “network vocational training” defined by the German Society of General Practice and Family Medicine (DEGAM), it will implement curricular content of vocational training more systematically and should be complemented by a structured rotation. In political and medical setting of competition for trainees a colloquium like the FORUM supported by an academic department can be a valuable contribution to prepare young doctors for expert practice and also to improve the attractiveness of the specialty.