Introduction:

This inquiry in our setting represents the first multicenter work in family medicine.

Objective:

To determine the effects of two educational strategies: Participatory versus traditional, with respect to the development of clinical aptitude in family medicine residents from four academic centers.

Method:

Quasi-experimental, multicenter design. The entire enrollment was studied. An instrument was constructed that assessed the variable "clinical aptitude" by means of eight indicators and 182 items; conceptual/content validity and reliability were evaluated by five experts with teaching and educational research experience. Participatory educational strategy: each session was developed in three phases with structured discussion guides. Traditional educational strategy: each session was conducted in two phases. Frequency of sessions: once a week (two hours). Total duration: 20 sessions. The measurement instrument was applied in the 1st and 20th session.

Results:

By year of residency, in the overall rating of the indicators, statistical differences were estimated between the initial-final measurement, resulting significant in UMF20 and HGZMF1. By indicator, statistically significant differences were observed in UMF20 and HGZMF1.

Conclusions:

A participatory versus traditional educational strategy has greater effects on the development of clinical aptitude in family medicine residents at experimental sites.