Do residency applicants know what the ACGME core competencies are? One program's experience.
OBJECTIVE
To determine the degree of knowledge that medical students applying to the St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center anesthesiology residency program had regarding the core physician competencies mandated by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education.


METHODS
As a part of the department's annual resident-selection process, in the fall of 2008, 193 interviewed fourth-year U.S. MD-degree medical students applying to the St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center anesthesiology program were given a brief, written questionnaire to determine their knowledge of the six core physician competencies. The instructions for completing the instrument were standardized and delivered to the applicants by one of the program directors.


RESULTS
A total of 193 applicants completed the interview questionnaire. Seventy-six had no knowledge of any of the physician competencies, and only three were able to correctly identify all six.


CONCLUSIONS
While this research is an observation of only one set of applicants to one residency program, if the findings are applicable to other programs and specialties, that suggests that medical schools and residency program directors should develop methods for increasing competency awareness among medical students.
Department of Anesthesiology, St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center, New York, New York 10025, USA. jwasnick@chpnet.org
John D
JD
Wasnick
Laura
L
Chang
Cortessa
C
Russell
Jeff
J
Gadsden
D000068:Accreditation; D000776:Anesthesiology / Q000193:education; D002983:Clinical Competence / Q000592:standards*; D004503:Education, Medical, Graduate / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D007396:Internship and Residency; D013337:Students, Medical; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States