Minimum Program Requirements Language
Approved by the ACGME, September 28, 1999
Educational Program
The residency program must require its residents to
obtain competencies in the 6 areas below to the level
expected of a new practitioner. Toward this end, programs
must define the specific knowledge, skills, and attitudes
required and provide educational experiences as needed
in order for their residents to demonstrate:
- Patient Care that is compassionate, appropriate,
and effective for the treatment of health problems
and the promotion of health
- Medical Knowledge about established and
evolving biomedical, clinical, and cognate (e.g. epidemiological
and social-behavioral) sciences and the application
of this knowledge to patient care
- Practice-Based Learning and Improvement
that involves investigation and evaluation of their
own patient care, appraisal and assimilation of scientific
evidence, and improvements in patient care
- Interpersonal and Communication Skills that
result in effective information exchange and teaming
with patients, their families, and other health professionals
- Professionalism, as manifested through a
commitment to carrying out professional responsibilities,
adherence to ethical principles, and sensitivity to
a diverse patient population
- Systems-Based Practice, as manifested by
actions that demonstrate an awareness of and responsiveness
to the larger context and system of health care and
the ability to effectively call on system resources
to provide care that is of optimal value
Evaluation
Evaluation of Residents
The residency program must demonstrate that it has
an effective plan for assessing resident performance
throughout the program and for utilizing assessment
results to improve resident performance. This plan should
include:
- use of dependable measures to assess residents'
competence in patient care, medical knowledge, practice-based
learning and improvement, interpersonal and communication
skills, professionalism, and systems-based practice
- mechanisms for providing regular and timely performance
feedback to residents
- a process involving use of assessment results to
achieve progressive improvements in residents' competence
and performance
Programs that do not have a set of measures in place
must develop a plan for improving their evaluations
and must demonstrate progress in implementing the plan.
Program Evaluation
- The residency program should use resident performance
and outcome assessment results in their evaluation
of the educational effectiveness of the residency
program.
- The residency program should have in place a process
for using resident and performance assessment results
together with other program evaluation results to
improve the residency program.
