Ten Tips for the Postgraduate
External Review

1. The date of the external review is April 7 – 13, 2013. The reviewers meet with the chairman, program director, the members of the Resident Program Committee (RPC), faculty and residents. Only for exceptional reasons should faculty or residents take holiday during this week.
2. All educational activities should be protected downtime for residents.
3. There should be an open dialogue with the residents about the external review process. The purpose of the review is issues now. There should be a culture in the specialty that issues can be to improve the program. The residents should be encouraged to bring forward brought forward without negative consequences for the resident. Hopefully the first time a problem is brought forward is not during the external review.
4. Each rotation must have specific goals and objectives. These goals and objectives should be discussed with the resident when they start a rotation. All faculty should be aware of the goals and objectives of their rotation. The goals and objectives of each rotation should be used and not only a document in the PSQ.
5. ITERS should be completed in a timely manner. The head of service of a rotation or their designate should meet with the resident midrotation and at the end of the rotation for a face-to-face discussion of the ITER and the residents experience on the service.
6. The ITER should be based on the specific goals and objectives for a rotation.
7. There should be specific criteria for promotion in each year of residency. The RPC must discuss promotion for each resident for each year of their residency using these criteria. All residents and faculty must be kept up to date on all activities in their specialty. This could be done by a newsletter or circulating the minutes of the RPC.
8. All junior surgical residents must go home by 12 noon the day after in house call.
9. All senior surgical residents can stay after 12 noon the day after in house call for educational purposes only and not for service reasons. (This may change. The new PAIRO contract has just been ratified. We have not seen the new contract and its implication for work hours.)
10. Each specialty should have a safety policy. The policy should be reviewed, with the attendings and the residents at the RPC.

Ron Levine,
Director, Postgraduate Education