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Milestones & Evaluations

Milestone achievement, evaluation, and communication are essential aspects in any educational program. These are particularly important in any practice-based learning experience, such as medicine.

When Does a House Officer Become an Internist?

The following is a brief primer on the Next Accreditation System (NAS).

Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs)

Attributes expected of an Internist in independent practice.

EPAs are a set of basic expectations that must be met by a graduating resident to practice independently (i.e., become an Internist); these have been developed by an AAIM (Academic Alliance of Internal Medicine) and ABIM (American Board of Internal Medicine.) Residency education is, thus, designed to ensure these EPAs are met by graduation; while it is not necessary that an individual rotation incorporate experiences to support every EPA, the sum experience of all rotations during residency must.

Curricular Milestones (CMs)

Level-appropriate expectations that define what it means to be a competent Internist.

To demonstrate a graduating resident has met the EPAs, criteria have been developed by AAIm and ABIM for each EPA that should be evaluated and met at expected times during a residents training; these interval-based criteria are termed Curricular Milestones and are Competency-based. Advancement in training requires meeting appropriately timed milestones; failure to do so will result in extension or termination of training.

The Level appropriate expectations are as follows:

PGY-4
PGY-5

Evaluation

Each fellow’s educational and professional development is tracked via several methods. Fellows receive verbal feedback about their clinical performance from the attending physicians with whom they work. residents, Housestaff, and faculty utilize a web-based evaluation system to evaluate themselves, peashooter, and the clinical settings in which they interact.

Each member of the Housestaff has a personal, biannual composite performance evaluation with the Program Director. During this one-on-one meeting, the fellow’s evaluations are reviewed, profess on procedural training is discussed, and progress toward career goals is assessed. The meeting enables the Program Director to ensure that residents are achieving the goals of the program, and it gives residents a venue to voice any concerns or satisfaction they may have with their progress, the program, or other matters.

Each fellow and faculty member should take the time to review Evaluation and Feedback Advice to get a better understanding of what is expected of them when providing and receiving feedback.

Evaluation Forms

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