The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) has outlined its "Next Accreditation System" (NAS) that will focus on resident and residency outcome measurements. Emergency medicine (EM) is one of seven specialties that will implement the NAS beginning July 2013. All other specialties will follow in July 2014. A key component of the NAS is the development of assessable milestones, which are explicit accomplishments or behaviors that occur during the process of residency education. Milestones describe competencies more specifically and identify specialty-specific knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviors (KSABs) that can be used as outcome measures within the general competencies. The ACGME and the American Board of Emergency Medicine (ABEM) convened an EM milestone working group to develop the EM milestones. This article describes the development, use within the NAS, and challenges of the EM milestones.ACADEMIC EMERGENCY MEDICINE 2013; 20:724-729

Objectives: The goal of undergraduate medical education is to prepare medical students for residency training. Active learning approaches remain important elements of the curriculum. Active learning of technical procedures in medical schools is particularly important, because residency training time is increasingly at a premium because of changes in the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education duty hour rules. Better preparation in medical school could result in higher levels of confidence in conducting procedures earlier in graduate medical education training. The hypothesis of this study was that more procedural training opportunities in medical school are associated with higher first-year resident self-reported competency with common medical procedures at the beginning of residency training.Methods: A survey was developed to assess self-reported experience and competency with common medical procedures. The survey was administered to incoming first-year residents at three U.S. training sites. Data regarding experience, competency, and methods of medical school procedure training were collected. Overall satisfaction and confidence with procedural education were also assessed.Results: There were 256 respondents to the procedures survey. Forty-four percent self-reported that they were marginally or not adequately prepared to perform common procedures. Incoming first-year residents reported the most procedural experience with suturing, Foley catheter placement, venipuncture, and vaginal delivery. The least experience was reported with thoracentesis, central venous access, and splinting. Most first-year residents had not provided basic life support, and more than one-third had not performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Participation in a targeted procedures course during medical school and increasing the number of procedures performed as a medical student were significantly associated with self-assessed competency at the beginning of residency training.Conclusions: Recent medical school graduates report lack of self-confidence in their ability to perform common procedures upon entering residency training. Implementation of a medical school procedure course to increase exposure to procedures may address this challenge.ACADEMIC EMERGENCY MEDICINE 2009; 16:S58-S62 ª

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BackgroundTargeted interventions have improved physical activity and wellness of medical residents. However, no exercise interventions have focused on emergency medicine residents.ObjectiveThis study aimed to measure the effectiveness of a wearable device for tracking physical activity on the exercise habits and wellness of this population, while also measuring barriers to adoption and continued use.MethodsThis pre-post cohort study enrolled 30 emergency medicine residents. Study duration was 6 months. Statistical comparisons were conducted for the primary end point and secondary exercise end points with nonparametric tests. Descriptive statistics were provided for subjective responses.ResultsThe physical activity tracker did not increase the overall self-reported median number of days of physical activity per week within this population: baseline 2.5 days (interquartile range, IQR, 1.9) versus 2.8 days (IQR 1.5) at 1 month (P=.36). There was a significant increase in physical activity from baseline to 1 month among residents with median weekly physical activity level below that recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at study start, that is, 1.5 days (IQR 0.9) versus 2.4 days (IQR 1.2; P=.04), to 2.0 days (IQR 2.0; P=.04) at 6 months. More than half (60%, 18/30) of participants reported a benefit to their overall wellness, and 53% (16/30) reported a benefit to their physical activity. Overall continued use of the device was 67% (20/30) at 1 month and 33% (10/30) at 6 months.ConclusionsThe wearable physical activity tracker did not change the overall physical activity levels among this population of emergency medicine residents. However, there was an improvement in physical activity among the residents with the lowest preintervention physical activity. Subjective improvements in overall wellness and physical activity were noted among the entire study population.

Elevated BP is common among ED patients. African American patients are more likely than those of other ethnic groups to have greater BP values. The ED visit may be a good opportunity to identify patients with unrecognized or poorly controlled hypertension.

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Faculty from 16 emergency medicine residency programs had a high interrater agreement when using the SDOT to evaluate resident core competency performance. This study did not test the validity of the tool. This data analysis is mainly descriptive, and scripted video scenarios may not approximate direct observation in the emergency department.