Journal of surgical education
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Comparative Study
How accurate is the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) Resident survey? Comparison between ACGME and in-house GME survey.
Increasing importance is being assigned to the annual Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) Resident/Fellow survey. In certain circumstances, the survey has prompted site visits for programs with significant areas of noncompliance. However, the dichotomous "yes/no" responses available for most questions on the ACGME survey limit the range of resident responses. Our Graduate Medical Education (GME) department administers an annual survey similar in content to the ACGME survey but with answers using a 5-point Likert scale. The purpose of the current study was to compare the responses obtained on the ACGME survey with our in-house GME survey. ⋯ The results of the current study suggest that responses obtained on the ACGME survey may inaccurately reflect the magnitude of noncompliance found in certain areas. We propose that this discrepancy may be a result of the limited range of responses available on the ACGME survey.
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Comparative Study
General surgery residents' views on work hours regulations.
Since 2003, compliance with Accreditation Council on Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) work hours regulations has been required for United States residency training programs. Further work hours restrictions have been proposed by the Institute of Medicine (IOM). This study examines General Surgery residents' views of current work hours restrictions and proposed changes by the IOM. ⋯ General surgery resident physicians in the US do not always record their work hours accurately and many have concerns about further work hour restrictions. The majority admitted underreporting work hours to care for a sick patient. Most US surgical residents feel further work hour restrictions would be detrimental to their training. Current work hours restrictions force surgery residents to underreport their work hours to perform the activities that they feel are necessary for their surgical training.
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Comparative Study
Disparity between actual case volume and the perceptions of case volume needed to train competent general surgeons.
Variances between resident expectations and faculty expectations may create conflict and/or dissatisfaction. The objective of this study was to determine if resident expectations of case requirements differed significantly from faculty expectations and/or national and program averages. ⋯ Resident and faculty perceptions of the number of cases needed for a competent graduating general surgery resident differ substantially from each other as well as from actual means. Improved education of each group to better align expectations with reality may improve satisfaction during training and confidence upon completion of training.
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In recent years, a significant decline in the number of medical school graduates who choose general surgery as a career has been noted in Israel. The aim of this study is to characterize the factors that deter Israeli medical students from choosing general surgery. Previous studies in the United States identified lifestyle and financial issues as the most important factors. ⋯ More medical graduates would consider general surgery as a career option if the lifestyle and inter-relationships were perceived as better. An increase in monetary reward did not seem to have a paramount impact among Israeli medical graduates. The surgical clerkship is an important turning point in the students' attitude toward surgery as a career and efforts must be made to improve students' experience significantly during this clerkship.