A Survey on Recent Medical School Graduate Comfort With the Level 1 Milestones

The Next Accreditation System implemented 5 levels of milestones for orthopedic surgery residents in 2013. The Level 1 milestones were noted as those "expected of an incoming resident." While the milestones were intended for assessing resident progression and readiness for independent practice, this designation can also be used to assess how well prepared graduating medical students are for beginning an orthopedic surgery residency. The primary objective of this paper is to measure recent medical school graduate comfort with the Level 1 milestones.

In June 2015, the program directors for the Midwest Orthopaedic Surgical Skills (MOSS) Consortium affiliated residency programs were sent an online survey for distribution to the recent medical school graduates who matched at their respective programs. The survey was about recent graduate comfort with the Level 1 milestone handles associated with 16 orthopedic milestones spanning multiple subspecialties. Responses were grouped based on comfort with individual milestone handles with orthopedic conditions (e.g., carpal tunnel) or with broader categories spanning orthopedic milestones (e.g., imaging).

In all, 66 of 112 graduates (58.9%) responded. Of 60 milestone handles surveyed, respondents were "Comfortable" with an average of 31.6 ± 14.2 handles with some conditions performing much better than others. The median "Comfortable" response rate was 31 handles. The 8 broader categories had "Comfortable" response rates between 35% and 70%. All 8 orthopedic conditions had significantly higher "Comfortable" response rates for "Evaluation & Knowledge" handles than for "Decision Making & Treatment" handles.

Most recent medical student graduates who matched into an orthopedic surgery residencies are only comfortable with about half of the Level 1 milestone handles even though they are expected to meet the Level 1 milestones upon beginning residency. This finding suggests the development of an assessment based on the Level 1 milestones would be appropriate to better inform both graduate and undergraduate medical education in orthopedic surgery.