Educational Experiences Residents Perceive As Most Helpful for the Acquisition of the ACGME Competencies.

BACKGROUND: The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) requires physicians in training to be educated in 6 competencies considered important for independent medical practice. There is little information about the experiences that residents feel contribute most to the acquisition of the competencies.
OBJECTIVE: To understand how residents perceive their learning of the ACGME competencies and to determine which educational activities were most helpful in acquiring these competencies.
METHOD: A web-based survey created by the graduate medical education office for institutional program monitoring and evaluation was sent to all residents in ACGME-accredited programs at the David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California-Los Angeles, from 2007 to 2010. Residents responded to questions about the adequacy of their learning for each of the 6 competencies and which learning activities were most helpful in competency acquisition.
RESULTS: We analyzed 1378 responses collected from postgraduate year-1 (PGY-1) to PGY-3 residents in 12 different residency programs, surveyed between 2007 and 2010. The overall response rate varied by year (66%-82%). Most residents (80%-97%) stated that their learning of the 6 ACGME competencies was "adequate." Patient care activities and observation of attending physicians and peers were listed as the 2 most helpful learning activities for acquiring the 6 competencies.
CONCLUSION: Our findings reinforce the importance of learning from role models during patient care activities and the heterogeneity of learning activities needed for acquiring all 6 competencies.