title: The CanMEDS framework: relevant but not quite the whole story.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Despite acknowledgement that the Canadian Medical Educational Directives for Specialists (CanMEDS) framework covers the relevant competencies of physicians, many educators and medical professionals struggle to translate the CanMEDS roles into comprehensive training programmes for specific specialties.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To gain insight into the applicability of the CanMEDS framework to guide the design of educational programmes for specific specialties by exploring stakeholders' perceptions of specialty specific competencies and examining differences between those competencies and the CanMEDS framework.
  
  
  METHODS
  This case study is a sequel to a study among ObsGyn specialists. It explores the perspectives of patients, midwives, nurses, general practitioners, and hospital boards on gynaecological competencies and compares these with the CanMEDS framework.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Clinical expertise, reflective practice, collaboration, a holistic view, and involvement in practice management were perceived to be important competencies for gynaecological practice. Although all the competencies were covered by the CanMEDS framework, there were some mismatches between stakeholders' perceptions of the importance of some competencies and their position in the framework.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The CanMEDS framework appears to offer relevant building blocks for specialty specific postgraduate training, which should be combined with the results of an exploration of specialty specific competencies to arrive at a postgraduate curriculum that is in alignment with professional practice.
authors.affiliation: St Lucas Andreas Hospital , The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Nadine
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: van der Lee
authors.forename: Joanne P I
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Fokkema
authors.forename: Michiel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Westerman
authors.forename: Erik W
authors.initials: EW
authors.lastname: Driessen
authors.forename: Cees P M
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: van der Vleuten
authors.forename: Albert J J A
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Scherpbier
authors.forename: Fedde
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Scheele
mesh_terms: D001290:Attitude; D002170:Canada; D002983:Clinical Competence; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D004501:Education, Medical / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000592:standards; D004521:Educational Measurement / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D006075:Governing Board; D006282:Health Personnel / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D008511:Medicine; D010361:Patients / Q000523:psychology; D011361:Professional Competence