A PROGRAM FOR DOCUMENTING COMPETENCE DURING SURGICAL RESIDENCY

The Department of Surgery at the State University of New York at Buffa lo (SUNY/Buffalo) has designed a competency program for surgical resid ents to provide focused graduate experience and create a database that is acceptable to the American Board of Surgery. It uses a computer pr ogram (ResSolution) to manage the database. The Advanced Trauma Life S upport (ATLS) provider course is used to document trauma credentials. A total of 221 residents have achieved satisfactory trauma credentials within six months of entering the program. All of the senior resident s (PGY4/5) have instructor status. In 12 months, 66 residents have par ticipated in 10,203 surgical procedures in five consortium hospitals. The majority (81.5%) were performed by the resident with direct facult y supervision. This resident credentialing program documents the acqui sition of clinical skills and provides a template on which graduate tr aining can be formalized. It may improve resident cognitive performanc e by identifying knowledge domains that are not addressed in the clini cal experience. It has significant potential to help manage the career development and clinical experience of residents.