Newborn care in family practice.

Official guidelines regarding the training of family practice residents in newborn medicine have been meager and general. Guidelines have traditionally focused on defining the requisite duration rather than the content of nursery rotations. A competency-based curriculum in newborn medicine is needed that defines requisite knowledge, skills, and attitudes; defines the appropriate role for the family physician in managing newborn problems; reflects the actual newborn experience of family physicians; is incorporated into residency training on a daily basis; and can be utilized in documenting resident competency in newborn health care. This paper describes the development, content, and daily implementation of a newborn curriculum that addresses these issues.