A new look at learning needs in general practice.

Over a period of 18 months, trainees in the West Midlands were given a multiple choice questionnaire at the start of the general practice year to assess their factual knowledge in 14 areas of medicine and were given the opportunity to take the same test six months later. Sixty-five trainees who completed the test twice are the basis of the study, and their results are compared with 99 trainers who completed the paper once. In the pre-training test, the trainees' scores were significantly lower than their trainers' in total and in most individual subjects. In the mid-training test, the trainees' knowledge of most subjects had improved significantly over the six months. These results indicate that the teaching and assessment of factual knowledge should not be dismissed as unimportant in general practice training.