The 7C+ Compass: a tool to guide undergraduate medical students in their discovery of the discipline of family medicine

Family medicine is a cornerstone of health care, yet its defining features often remain implicit in undergraduate medical training, making it difficult for students to grasp the discipline's distinctive logic and professional appeal. To address this gap, the 7C+ Compass was developed as a conceptual and practical tool to make family medicine's core functions visible and teachable. Based on existing frameworks, it brings together eight key functions: first contact, continuity, comprehensiveness, coordination, community engagement, patient-centredness, complexity, and professional practice. Together, they reflect family medicine's integrative role linking individual, community, and system perspectives. Implemented in a pilot teaching track, the Compass has been used in clinical placements, small-group seminars, and lectures. Early use suggests that it fosters reflection and provides a shared language for linking clinical experiences with conceptual understanding. The 7C+ Compass offers a simple, adaptable framework to enhance learning and teaching in family medicine and to strengthen its visibility within medical curricula. Future work will involve students in its refinement, align it with competency frameworks, and evaluate its educational impact across different contexts; it may also help students appreciate the scope and coherence of family medicine as a career path, a hypothesis that warrants further research.