Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

Many surgical licensure bodies are moving towards competency-based training models in an attempt to improve surgical education. This shift will require training programs to come up with more effective ways to determine when trainees have reached proficiency in all of the skills required of a surgeon. Training programs also need to improve the way that feedback is used to support the learning process. The goal of our workshop will be to share our experiences designing and implementing assessment tools for surgical training programs that are making the transition to competency-based medical education (CBME) frameworks. We will highlight key lessons and examples from our recent work in the Division of Orthopedic Surgery at a Canadian training centre. We have developed competency-based tools for a number of essential orthopedic procedures that focus on learning as well as assessment, and are now piloting these across our residency program. We believe that this framework will help improve teaching and provide educators with more meaningful measures of clinical competency. We hope that it will also enhance the training experience for residents and might serve as a template for other programs. Throughout our workshop, we will engage participants in interactive discussions about the role of feedback and assessment in CMBE. Participants will also have the opportunity to share and get feedback on specific challenges and needs that they may have encountered in implementing competency-based assessment into their respective programs. This workshop is designed for all levels of participants (beginner to advanced) who have an interest in CBME. It may be of particular interest to faculty and program directors that are involved with training and assessing residents, or who are involved in CBME implementation at their home institutions.