Unexpected result of competency-based medical education: 9-year application trends to enhanced skills programs by family medicine residents at a single institution in Canada.

In Canada, family physicians may pursue extended training for added competence in areas such as Palliative Care or Emergency Medicine by applying to Enhanced Skills (ES) programmes. Despite the increasing popularity of ES programmes, there are no studies that examine trends in applications to ES programmes before and after the introduction of family medicine focused competency-based curricula at individual universities. Additionally, there is a scarcity of research examining factors common among applicants to ES programmes. We undertook a retrospective observational study using secondary data analysis of archived resident files from a large Canadian family medicine residency programme. The proportion of applicants to ES programmes decreased since implementation of a competency-based curriculum in the subject programme. Older, male, and Canadian medical graduates (CMGs) applied to ES programmes more often than their respective counterparts. Residents in a family medicine competency-based curriculum may be less inclined to extend their training by applying to ES programmes. This is remarkable considering that the Canadian residency programme is the shortest among high-income countries. Further studies are needed to investigate the role of competency-based medical education programmes in enabling shortening residency training around the world.