Using the ACMGE Milestones as a Handover Tool From Medical School to Surgery Residency

Abstract

Objective: To map current medical school assessments for graduating students to the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) milestones in general surgery, and to pass forward individual performance metrics on level 1 milestones to receiving residency programs.

Design: The study included 20 senior medical students who were accepted into surgery internship positions. Data from medical school performance assessments from the third-year surgery clerkship, fourth-year surgery rotations, fourth-year surgery boot camp, Clinical Competency Assessment Examination, and United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) Step 1 and 2 examinations were used to map each student's competency assessments to the General Surgery Milestones based on a scoring system created and validated by independent assessors. This Milestones Assessment was then provided to each student's receiving program director.

Setting: The study was conducted at the University of Michigan Medical School, in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Participants: Fourth-year medical students entering into surgical internship.

Results: Of 16 Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) General Surgery Milestones subcompetencies, 12 were able to be evaluated with current medical school assessments. Of the 20 students, 11 met criteria for all the level 1 milestones and 9 needed improvement in at least 1 domain.

Conclusions: It was feasible to use medical school assessments to feed forward information about senior medical students on 12 of the 16 General Surgery Milestones subcompetency domains.

Keywords: ACGME Milestones; Interpersonal and Communication Skills; Medical Knowledge; Patient Care; Systems-Based Practice; graduate medical education; medical student performance evaluation; surgery residency.