Competence by Design Innovators

CBD gives us a new capture system for assessment, which is useful. But our department already had such a strong culture of education that the task of implementation has been pretty straightforward. What I learned was to tap into faculty’s existing expertise and acknowledge the skills they've already contributed.

The biggest challenge has been helping the residents integrate and balance the new requirements of CBD. They had to learn a whole new approach, including a new electronic interface. They had to get used to the notion of spending time every couple weeks looking at the requirements – all while the platform was under development at Queen’s. There were a lot of moving parts and we asked a lot of them.

Offer strong encouragement for learners and faculty, and recognize the assets they bring to the table as they adopt this new process. Tap into that culture of education that your program already has and remind faculty that they’ve been great teachers all long.

Initially, it was a question of raising awareness and giving talks to faculty at our grand rounds. Some faculty are finding it a challenge to assess the EPAs against specific standards, so I’m creating a snapshot of what trainees should look like at each stage upon transition based on the EPAs and milestones. Hopefully this will give the group a more global feel for things.

I believe CBD is the right way to do things. We have our first cohort in July who won’t be studying for the Royal College internal medicine exam. I’ve framed that group as the beginning of the golden age in GI training. Residents will be able to jump into the CBME environment and not have another looming, competing priority. I also suspect that the uptake and engagement and frequency of assessments will create better learner self-awareness.

Early on, we used videos, presentations at rounds, and CBD resources from the Royal College website. Then we provided a venue at our division meetings for faculty to express their concerns. It’s important to facilitate communication between faculty and the program in a way that streamlines their ability to communicate.

I’m really proud of our residents, who have approached CBD with an open mind and engaged to the best of their abilities, realising this was something completely new. Faculty has also remained really well engaged and brought issues up as necessary so we could improve things.