Graduate medical education (GME) program directors and other leaders now have an efficient way to more easily help meet quality improvement and patient safety requirements from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME). Finding quality educational material on these topics has proven to be a challenge for residency program leaders.
The AMA GME Competency Education Program delivers education to help institutions effectively meet ACGME common program requirements. Current program subscribers have access to award-winning online education designed for residents on the go. It’s easy to use and saves time with simple tracking and reporting tools for administrators. Learn more.
Created specifically for residents by subject-matter experts, the new “Foundations of Quality Improvement and Patient Safety” curriculum includes 10 self-paced “microlessons” on quality and safety, features a longitudinal case study, has health equity woven throughout each course, and can be completed in less than three hours to earn a certificate.
Learn a lot in less than 20 minutes
The microlessons take about 17 minutes on average. Compared with traditional training methods, so-called microlearning leads to 20% better retention among learners, 22% faster completion and 28% better performance.
Additionally, the microlearning approach enables:
- Access to on-the-go content available when it’s convenient for the learner.
- Personalized choice for learners, who can choose what information to focus on.
- Introducing learners to larger, more complex topics by breaking and presenting on smaller pieces of the content.
The first microlesson in the curriculum, “Basics of Patient Safety,” provides an overview of patient safety, explains how a team of health professionals can improve patient care and outcomes, and describes how to respond to medical errors. A series of short lessons helps learners:
- Identify the basic principles of patient safety.
- Explain how medical errors are classified.
- Describe the elements of full disclosure and apology when addressing those affected by medical errors.
- Recognize how human factors, systems thinking and “just culture” can improve patient safety.
The microlesson also features a glossary of key terms, and a short quiz at the end tests users’ application of knowledge gained in the course through a realistic scenario.
Simplicity works
Each course follows a microlearning educational approach, which introduces learners to complex topics by breaking them down into smaller pieces. Doing so reduces cognitive load and boosts knowledge retention and performance compared with traditional training methods.
The other nine courses in the curriculum follow the same format as the first. They are:
- “Basics of Quality Improvement.”
- “Responding to an Adverse Event.”
- “Creating an Adverse Event Report.”
- “Conducting a Root Cause Analysis.”
- “Applying PDSA Cycles in Quality Improvement.”
- “Health Care Quality: Measuring Physician Performance.”
- “Patient Handoffs.”
- “Working Effectively Within an Interprofessional Team.”
- “Systems Thinking.”
Easy to track progress
Residency program directors have access to dashboards and reports that provide a view of progress at the program and institution levels. In addition, customizable reports make it easy to track learner performance and demonstrate compliance for accreditation.
The AMA GME Competency Education Program covers topics including well-being, QI and patient safety, residents as teachers, navigating health systems, health equity, professionalism and faculty development. Faculty access is included at no additional cost. Schedule a meeting to discuss your organization’s needs.
