CONFERENCE ATTENDANCE - DO WE MEET THE NEW RESIDENCY REVIEW COMMITTEEREQUIREMENTS

Study objectives: To characterize the attendance at and presenters of conferences given to emergency medicine residents and to determine the ability of emergency medicine residents to attend conferences while w orking in the emergency department and on off-service rotations. Desig n: Descriptive study of an anonymous mail survey. Participants: Reside ncy directors of all approved emergency medicine residency programs in the United States. Results: Seventy-six of 95 questionnaires (80%) we re returned. We defined ''high attendance'' at emergency medicine conf erences as a reported average of at least 75% attendance by emergency medicine resident physicians. Fifty percent of respondents reported hi gh attendance. Conversely, 17% of programs reported poor attendance, w hich we defined as an average attendance by 50% or fewer emergency med icine resident physicians. Forty-eight percent of programs reported th at emergency medicine faculty conducted more than 50% of the conferenc es, and 16% reported that the faculty conducted 25% or fewer conferenc es. Ninety-six percent of programs allowed residents to attend confere nces during off-service rotations. Ninety-two percent of programs reli eved residents of clinical responsibilities during scheduled shifts in the emergency department so that they might attend lectures. Conclusi on: We found that a sizable proportion of programs may not have met th e new Residency Review Committee requirements for lecture attendance a t the time the guidelines were issued. The vast majority of programs m et guidelines for relief of clinical duties, and a large proportion of programs exceeded the requirements for percentage of lectures given b y emergency medicine faculty.