A Blueprint for Pediatric Residency

In 2002, the 1996 guidelines for residency training in general pediatrics were used by 80 percent of the pediatric residency training programs in the country. Since those guidelines were adopted, though, the Accreditation Council on Graduate Medical Education has moved from process-based criteria to outcomes-based criteria for residency programs. This grant will support revision of the current guidelines to reflect that change and place emphasis on communication skills and self-directed learning assessment.

The Ambulatory Pediatric Association, an organization of general pediatric faculty at academic pediatric residency programs, and one of seven national pediatric associations, has been designated by the Federation of Pediatric Organizations, the umbrella organization, to take the lead in developing the revised guidelines. Kenneth Roberts, MD, Professor of Pediatrics at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, currently serves as chairman of the Federation and is the immediate past president of the Ambulatory Pediatric Association.

In the first year of the grant, section editors will be identified. They will then select authors for each component of the new guidelines. In the second year, new content will be finalized and mounted on the association’s website and then field-tested by selected pediatric residency programs. In the third year, the revised and final form of the guidelines will be available on the Internet and will be disseminated throughout the nation. The Federation of Pediatric Organizations will evaluate the revised guidelines for two additional years.