A quarter century of teacher training in family medicine in Europe: homage to the Bled course

Abstract

[Excerpt] If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it.’ This advice can apply to many situations. It can certainly apply to the annual Janko Kersnik International EURACT Bled Course for teacher training in family medicine. This course will convene for the 25th time in September of this year. It is worth pausing to examine the remarkable path this course has taken, to assess its influence, and to speculate on how it can continue to serve family medicine in Europe. The early history of this course has been documented in a number of publications,1-2 and additional articles planned to discuss future directions. This editorial will provide a more personal view of the course and some reflections on how the lessons learned in the course may be applied locally. The course began in 1991 as an initiative of the Slovene Association of Family Doctors and the Department of Family Medicine in Ljubljana, to prepare young teachers in Slovenia for the task of tutoring and training medical students and residents in family medicine. The profession had recently received specialist status in that country and a new cadre of teachers were required. In order to enrich the program, foreign guests, including Jaime Correia de Sousa were invited to join the faculty. The success of the first course led to the planning of a second and so it continued for twenty-five years. I have been involved annually as a course director since 1997. [...]