Why Residency Selection Slows the Road to Competency-Based Med Ed

AMA News Release (10/20/22) Smith, Timothy M.

Expert panelists at a recent American Medical Education webinar cited the requirements of residency selection as hindering the evaluation of competency-based medical education (CBME). "What clearly stands in our way is a system that grossly encourages achievement orientation," said Stanford University School of Medicine's Holly Caretta-Weyer, MD, MHPE. She observed that some medical students' intense focus on meeting residency demands often makes them hesitant to acknowledge any competency gaps. Caretta-Weyer added that the flood of residency applications "leads us to dual-purpose our assessments" by pursuing the achievement of metrics and growth in a CBME system. She claimed both these goals can coexist, and the first step in realizing this is for programs to evaluate all of their stakeholders and goals. Caretta-Weyer recommended considering three factors in the selection process. "There's individual achievement in individual priorities; there's the overall competence and the ability to do the work that you're hiring them to do; and then there's the responsibility to meet the outcomes of a diverse society," she explained.

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