The Association for Surgical Education

Impacting Surgical Education Globally

TOTB-03: INCORPORATING RESIDENT FEEDBACK INTO LEARNING OBJECTIVE DESIGN HAS POSITIVE IMPACT ON ACHIEVEMENT OF ACGME’S CORE COMPETENCIES
Alyssa Elaine Stetson, M.P.H.; University of Massachusetts Memorial Health Care

 

What problem in education is addressed by this work?:
Surgical residents at the University of Massachusetts receive learning objectives centered around ACGME’s six core competencies. We found that these objectives are under- and/or incorrectly utilized, limiting residents’ ability to self-teach and contributing to delay in reaching certain milestones. Feedback from residents indicated that changing the process by which the objectives are constructed and distributed would increase their ability to use the objectives to maximize learning

Describe the intervention:
The process of designing the objectives was changed to include residents’ goals for their own education, and the objectives were written to be more specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-sensitive, centered around clear weekly expectations with case-based flipped classroom teaching sessions focusing on each week's objectives. Residents met with faculty at the beginning of the rotation to develop a personal plan for objective achievement. Changes to the objectives were supplemented by faculty development to ensure that the process of designing the objectives is sustainable.

Describe how this intervention could be applied at other institutions. Please specifically comment on identified barriers that could exist and how they could be overcome:
The success of this intervention depends on residents providing thoughtful, honest feedback about what curriculum changes would most benefit their education and on attendings dedicating time at the onset of intervention to elicit feedback, design objectives, and engage in faculty development. A thorough understanding of the educational theories behind the intervention could bolster commitment to adopting it from both groups, as could demonstrating the success of the intervention at other institutions.