Conference attendance: do we meet the new residency review committee requirements?

To characterize the attendance at and presenters of conferences given to emergency medicine residents and to determine the ability of emergency medicine residents to attend conferences while working in the emergency department and on off-service rotations.

Descriptive study of an anonymous mail survey.

Residency directors of all approved emergency medicine residency programs in the United States.

Seventy-six of 95 questionnaires (80%) were returned. We defined "high attendance" at emergency medicine conferences as a reported average of at least 75% attendance by emergency medicine resident physicians. Fifty percent of respondents reported high attendance. Conversely, 17% of programs reported poor attendance, which we defined as an average attendance by 50% or fewer emergency medicine resident physicians. Forty-eight percent of programs reported that emergency medicine faculty conducted more than 50% of the conferences, and 16% reported that the faculty conducted 25% or fewer conferences. Ninety-six percent of programs allowed residents to attend conferences during off-service rotations. Ninety-two percent of programs relieved residents of clinical responsibilities during scheduled shifts in the emergency department so that they might attend lectures.

We found that a sizable proportion of programs may not have met the new Residency Review Committee requirements for lecture attendance at the time the guidelines were issued. The vast majority of programs met guidelines for relief of clinical duties, and a large proportion of programs exceeded the requirements for percentage of lectures given by emergency medicine faculty.