Obstetrics and Gynecology Milestones

Abstract

One of the key elements of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education's (ACGME) Next Accreditation System is to move accreditation from a focus on structure and process to an emphasis on educational outcomes. The goal of the educational Milestones is to “provide accountability for effectiveness of educational programs in producing outcomes.”1 Experienced educators in each specialty have been asked to describe the observable developmental steps that lead from novice to expert in that field. The goal of the Obstetrics and Gynecology Milestone development project was to produce a set of demonstrable, competency-based, progressive developmental outcomes to be assessed for each obstetrics and gynecology resident and, aggregated to the program level, to be reported to the ACGME on a semiannual basis. The Obstetrics and Gynecology Residency Review Committee (RRC) will use the Milestone data to assess program effectiveness and provide feedback to the programs to facilitate improvements in curricula and potentially other aspects of the educational program. In addition, residents and their faculty mentors can use the Milestones to frame discussion of an individual resident's progress along the continuum of training and to facilitate early identification and remediation in cases where residents fail to progress.