Interdepartmental Collaboration for Competency-Based Education

Project Description Narrative:

In the last five years, major efforts have been undertaken to re-evaluate the practice and teaching of medicine. AHW, Healthy People 2010, Healthiest Wisconsin 2010 and the Healthiest Milwaukee Initiative have identified several areas for improvement in the current healthcare system. Achieving long-term success with the objectives of these plans will require their integration into the education of new healthcare professionals. Unfortunately, the graduate medical education (GME) system faces several challenges to implementing these important initiatives.

The Core Skills Program is an innovative approach to residency training designed to overcome the current challenges faced in GME. The Core Skills Program will have three primary aims: 1) assure a consistent clinical knowledge and skills base upon which advanced proficiencies can be developed; 2) provide a dedicated educational environment for teaching clinical subjects poorly compatible with current rotational and conference structures but important to all medical specialties; and 3) promote faculty and curriculum development and educational scholarship by serving as a venue for piloting new teaching methods and testing their effectiveness.

The program will be delivered to residents at all stages of training in multiple departments at MCW, including Medicine, Neurology, PM&R, Obstetrics/Gynecology, and Surgery. As the program evolves, it is expected that other departments will join in this collaborative effort as well.