From April 2017 to September 2019, the START (standardized reception, teaching, analysis, research, training) method was adopted to train 50 general practitioners at the community general practice teaching clinic of Shanghai Huangdu Community Health Service Center. After 3 months of training, the progress of clinical competence and teaching ability were assessed. After training, the scores of clinical skills and communication skills were significantly higher than those before training (P<0.01). The scores of medical history taking, clinical thinking and health education were higher than before (allP<0.01). But there was no significant difference in record writing and reception time management between those before and after training (allP>0.05). The scores of the ability for building physician-patient relationship, collecting information and providing feedback, understanding complaints from patients′ perspective, sharing information and obtaining informed consents were higher than that before training (allP<0.01). The teaching ability of plan design and teaching method were significantly improved compared with that before training (allP<0.01). The satisfaction rate of START method was 96.0%(48/50). The START method applied in community teaching clinic can significantly improve the clinical competency and teaching ability of general practitioners.

Community health center; In-service training; Clinical competence; Teaching