Medical education programmes worldwide are becoming competency-based, aiming to provide training in all aspects relevant to the future practice of physicians. These involve competencies that exceed the sole domain of medical expertise and skills, beholding i.e. communication, collaboration, ethics, and management. Although the necessity of these so called ‘generic’ competencies has become clear in investigations into workplace and societal needs, recognition of the importance of these competencies by the medical profession is sometimes challenging. In this article, the relevance of generic competencies to daily practice is illustrated by two narratives from obstetricsgynaecology. Subsequent reflection on these narratives illustrates the importance of the incorporation of generic competencies in medical training. Izobraževanje zdravnikov po svetu postaja vse bolj usmerjeno v kompetence, saj je cilj relevantno izobraževanje za bodoče praktično zdravnikovo delo. Te kompetence presegajo strokovnost in veščine in obsegajo tudi komunikacijo, sodelovanje, etiko in upravljanje. Čeprav so raziskave dokazale, da so te tako imenovane 'generične‘ kompetence na delovnem mestu in pri družbenih zahtevah potrebne, priznanje s strani medicinske stroke predstavlja izziv. V tem prispevku z dvema pripovedma iz porodništva in ginekologije ilustriramo pomembnost generičnih kompetenc v vsakodnevnem delu. Posledični razmislek o teh pripovedih ilustrira pomen vključitve generičnih kompetenc v izobraževanje zdravnikov.