STIFCompetency: development and evaluation of a new clinical training and assessment programme in sexual health for primary care health professionals

UK sexual health services are shifting from hospital-based clinics into primary care, creating a need for high quality clinical sexual health training for non-specialists. Here we describe development, evaluation and costing of a new competency-based training programme, the Sexually Transmitted Infection (STI) Foundation Competency (STIF Competency) programme, based on the Department of Health's toolkit for delivering more specialized sexual health in primary care. We used an action research paradigm with two iterative cycles. Evaluation was to Kirkpatrick's third level with triangulation of results between trainers and trainees, and different methods, including portfolio evaluation, nominal group technique process, semi-structured interviews, Likert questionnaires and chlamydia testing rates. All 13 primary care clinicians completed the training successfully (median 20 hours) and rated STIF Competency highly. Trainers needed to reduce their clinical workload to accommodate the training. Average cost per trainee was £1125, reflecting the need for direct observation of competence across a wide range of clinical skills.