Columbia to Test Guidelines for Preparing Medical Students for Residency
Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons is one of 10 medical schools chosen by the Association of American Medical Colleges to pilot the implementation of guidelines intended to ensure that all new physicians can perform a set of core activities in the care of patients. Seventy schools applied for the pilot program, called Core Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) for Entering Residency.
The AAMC released the Core EPA guidelines in June 2014 in response to feedback from residency program directors about the clinical preparedness of new residents and emerging literature documenting a performance gap at the transition point between medical school and residency training.
The guidelines delineate 13 activities that all new residents should be expected to perform without supervision on Day 1, regardless of specialty choice. They include performing a complete and accurate physical exam, documenting a clinical encounter in the patient’s medical record, and presenting an oral summary of a clinical encounter.
“The AAMC was extremely gratified that more than half of our member medical schools applied to participate in this pilot program. The enthusiastic response from more than 70 institutions demonstrates the significant energy and commitment within academic medicine toward closing the gap between expectations and performance for residents on Day 1,” said Darrell G. Kirch, MD, AAMC president and CEO. “The institutions selected will complement one another through the unique qualities and skills that each team and medical school brings to the program. Given the tremendous response, we are committed to engaging all the applicants in the pilot as partners in this robust learning community, and we look forward to working with all our interested schools on this effort.”
Other schools chosen were Florida International University Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine, Michigan State University College of Human Medicine, New York University School of Medicine, Oregon Health & Science University School of Medicine, University of Illinois College of Medicine, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, and Yale School of Medicine.