title: Electrocardiography teaching in Canadian family medicine residency programs: a national survey.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Electrocardiography (ECG) interpretation is an essential skill for a family physician. Teaching and learning electrocardiography is a difficult task, in part due to the erosion of knowledge when interpretation is not part of a daily activity. The objective of this study was to assess the current status of electrocardiography teaching in Canadian family medicine residency programs.
  
  
  METHODS
  A national survey was designed to specifically address the status of the ECG teaching curricula. This national survey was electronically sent to the family medicine program directors of all 17 Canadian accredited medical schools.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Approximately 75% of the schools responded to the survey. There was a great variance among Canadian family medicine residency programs with respect to the time allotment, ECG training location, training faculty, and teaching methods utilized. The goals of each respective program are also quite wide-ranging.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Family medicine residency programs across Canada are quite diverse regarding ECG training curricula and its goals. The need for a homogeneous way of teaching and evaluating has been identified.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Baldeep
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Paul
authors.forename: Adrian
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Baranchuk
mesh_terms: D002170:Canada; D002983:Clinical Competence / Q000592:standards*; D004562:Electrocardiography / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards*; D005194:Family Practice / Q000193:education*; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007396:Internship and Residency / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards*; D012577:Schools, Medical / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data