Soundbooth Friday: Get residents feedback about the program

By: Julie McCoy January 30th, 2009

Over the last several months, Residency Program Alert has included a series describing how to combat the nine red flags in the accreditation process outlined in the February 2008 ACGME e-bulletin. The article in February’s issue of RPA covers the concern the ACGME identified as, “lack of program leadership.”

The article provides examples of how program directors successfully lead their training programs. I interviewed three directors who won the ACGME’s 2009 Parker J. Palmer Courage to Teach Award and each shared their best leadership practices. Interviewees included Richard E. Welling, MD, surgery program director at Good Samaritan Hospital in Cincinnati, Edmund S. Cibas, MD , cytopathology fellowship director at Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston, and Peter J. Carek, MD, MS, family medicine program director at Trident Medical Center/ Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston.

In the e-Bulletin, the ACGME says that program leadership’s failure to address residents’ concerns about the educational program may be one sign that the program is not complying with all ACGME requirements.

All interviewees discussed how they use the annual program review to identify shortcomings. However, Dr. Carek also elaborated on some other formal and informal methods he uses to solicit residents’ feedback, which I thought were pretty interesting. Listen to what he had to say below.

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