Evaluation and Feedback
Evaluation Narrative
Advisors
Each resident is assigned a faculty member as an advisor for mentoring. The residents and their advisors have formal meetings a minimum of four times per year, where an evaluation is completed based on the meeting. Advisors and residents discuss their independent learning plans and their educational milestones. Stressors at work and in one’s personal life may be addressed as needed with the goal of maximizing resident well-being.
The Program Administrator Meeting (PAM)
PAM is generally held twice per month to address the day-to-day operation of the training program. The program director, associate program directors, core faculty, chief medical residents, resident class representatives and key support staff attend the meetings. Residents’ concerns are a standing agenda item for the meeting. Either a chief medical resident or resident class representative can present an issue for discussion at the meeting.
The Residency Operations Committee (ROC)
This committee of the core faculty members, CMRs, resident class representatives, and the education coordinator meets monthly to discuss policy issues, major training program decisions and is also a forum for the resident representatives to express concern about any aspect of the training program, including wellbeing issues. The committee generally meets monthly.
PGY meetings
These meetings are held monthly. The CMRs, the program directors and the education coordinator meet with the PGY-1 class and the PGY-2/3 classes separately to disseminate information to the residents and to hear their concerns. The focus of this forum is for residents to express their concerns and ideas for improvement of the training program, the hospital/clinic environment and the DMC graduate education process.
Suggestion box
This is available where messages can be left for the program anonymously. We stress the need for the residents themselves to watch for signs of impaired behavior (due to stress, drugs, alcohol, etc.) among themselves and to report it the program by whatever avenue they feel most comfortable using (advisor, CMR or faculty contact, suggestion box, etc.)
Duty Hours
Our program monitors duty hours weekly. Residents log their duty hours using New Innovations (a web-based program) duty hour tracking module. Reports are generated weekly to be sure the residents keep their logs up-to-date and are that they are complying with the duty hour rules. This process is mandated by the ACGME.
The Evaluation System
The vast majority of evaluations done of trainees of teachers and by trainees of teachers are completed using a web-based evaluation system: New Innovations. A few evaluations done by non-core faculty still come to us via a paper. The website is set up to ensure that evaluations of teachers by learners are confidential. Evaluations of learners by teachers permit the learner to make comments about the evaluation, which then becomes a permanent part of the evaluation. The faculty receives a summary of their evaluations done by the residents in an anonymous fashion.
Access to Faculty
All faculty members, for the most part, have an open-door policy for the residents in the training program. If a faculty member is not immediately available for a meeting, an appointment can usually be made within one to two days to meet.
