Supplemental Milestones for Emergency Medicine Residency Programs: A Validation Study

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Emergency Medicine Training

Background:

• Emergency medicine (EM) residency programs offer 36 or 48-month training tracks.
• Accreditation requires educational justification for 48-month programs.
• Supplemental milestones were developed to assess advanced EM training outcomes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the content validity of newly developed supplemental milestones for 48-month EM residency programs.
• To evaluate the utility of these milestones as assessment tools for advanced educational outcomes.

Main Methods:

• Six novel subcompetencies were created by EM program directors and content experts.
• Subject-matter experts refined milestones for these subcompetencies.
• Program directors ranked proposed milestones using the Dreyfus model of skill acquisition.

Main Results:

• Fifty-eight percent of subjects completed the study.
• No subcompetencies or milestones met deletion criteria.
• Most proposed milestones were validated, with some level adjustments.

Conclusions:

• Six supplemental subcompetencies and associated milestones were developed and validated for EM residency programs.
• These optional milestones provide a framework for assessing additional educational outcomes.
• The supplemental milestones utilize a familiar rubric for EM residency programs.