Competency Assessment in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Resident Education: A Systematic Review

The aim of this systematic review was to examine the scope and quality of research in physical medicine and rehabilitation resident education as it pertains to the six core competencies defined by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education.

All indexed years of Medline, Embase, and ERIC were searched using key words related to physical medicine and rehabilitation and medical education. Data were extracted on core competencies, content categories, teaching interventions, and study quality.

From a sample of 2544 articles, 62 studies were included in this review. Frequencies of core competencies studied were: patient care 62.9%, medical knowledge 56.5%, systems-based practice 22.6%, practice-based learning and improvement 14.5%, professionalism 25.8%, and interpersonal and communication skills 22.6%. Musculoskeletal and pain medicine was the most frequently studied content category (33.9%). There was no significant difference in quality of studies between the six core competency groups ( P = 0.31).

Available research is highly concentrated in patient care and medical knowledge competencies and in the musculoskeletal and pain medicine content category. This systematic review outlines the current state of education literature and highlights areas for further inquiry. This is an important step toward the translation of research into evidence-based educational practices.