Initial experiences in embedding core competency education in entry-level surgery residents through a nonclinical rotation.

BACKGROUND: Health care continues to expand in scope and in complexity. In this changing environment, residents are challenged with understanding its intricacies and the impact it will have on their professional activities and careers. AIM: Embedding each of the competency elements in residents in a meaningful way remains a challenge for many surgery residency program directors. METHODS: We established a nonclinical rotation to provide surgery postgraduate year-1 (PGY-1) residents with a structured, multifaceted, largely self-directed curriculum into which each of the 6 core competencies are woven. Posttesting strategies were established for most curricular experiences to ensure to the greatest possible extent that each resident will have achieved an acceptable level of understanding of each of the competency areas before being given credit for the rotation. RESULTS: By uniformly exceeding satisfactory scores on respective objective analyses, residents demonstrated an increased (at least short-term) understanding of each of the assessed competency areas. CONCLUSION: Our project sought to address a prior lack of opportunity for our residents to develop a sound foundation for our residents in systems-based practice. Our new rotation addresses systems-based practice in several different learning environments, including emergency medical service ride-along, sentinel event participation, and hospice visits. Several research projects have enhanced the overall learning program. Our experience shows that a rotation dedicated to competency training can provide an innovative and engaging means of teaching residents the value of each element.