Ashlee Jaffe
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
Objective: To describe current quality improvement (QI) curricula in Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation (PM&R) residency training programs, characterize program directors’ (PDs) perceptions of their own and their faculty’s QI knowledge and skill, categorize types of current QI training, and determine PDs opinions of the optimal form of QI training to inform the development of a national QI curriculum for PM&R residents.
Design: All PM&R PDs from ACGME accredited training programs with published email addresses were invited to complete this 29 question survey. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data.
Results: Forty-five percent of PDs (35/78) responded to the survey. All programs had QI education and required QI project participation, but the quantity and types of learning experiences varied greatly. PDs assessed their ability as less than proficient to teach QI (62%) or lead a QI project (57%) and rated 60% of their faculty as having novice or advanced beginner QI skills. Seventy-four percent of PDs reported that they would utilize of a standardized, national QI curriculum for PM&R residents.
Conclusions: Format and duration of QI education for PM&R residents varies as well as faculty QI expertise. A standardized, national, PM&R resident QI curriculum would be broadly accepted.
