Evaluation and Documentation of Competence
Quarterly staff meetings are held to evaluate the progress of fellows, especially focusing on whether core-curriculum requirements are being met for each fellow. Rotations and time/work distribution sometimes need to be adjusted to fulfill adherence with these requirements. Fellows are evaluated for their intellectual abilities, manual skills, attitudes, critical analysis for clinical situations, patient care, medical knowledge, practice-based learning improvement, interpersonal and communication skills, professionalism and humanistic patient care, systems-based learning and improvement, and overall clinical skills. There is appropriate feedback of this information to the trainee at regular intervals. The fellows meet with the chief of cardiothoracic anesthesia and/or program director at frequent intervals (no less than every six months) in order to discuss specific issues, in particular whether the goals and objectives of training are being met.
Fellows also periodically evaluate the faculty, operating room staff and perfusionists in an anonymous fashion and the information is provided to the staff members. Measures to correct any deficiencies are discussed at the semiannual faculty meetings for assessment of the training program.