Responding to the ACGME's competency requirements: an innovative instrument from the University of Virginia's neurology residency.

The general competencies mandated by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) Outcome Project have resulted in new training requirements for most residency programs. To determine the training program changes necessary because of these new standards, the neurology residency program at the University of Virginia developed a simple grid-like instrument that links the objectives for residents' major rotations with the six ACGME general competencies. This instrument, created in 2002, helped the program develop specific training elements related to the general competencies that were identified as missing from the residency. The instrument was then converted to an evaluation tool that allows attending physicians to assess individual residents' competencies for each objective in all major rotations. The author describes the assessment and evaluation instruments, called Self Assessment and Vital Evaluation (SAVE), and their usefulness in the University of Virginia neurology residency program's initial response to the new standards. She also suggests that these instruments, with some modifications, may be of value to other residency programs.