How CBME Has Helped Residents Throughout the Pandemic
Medical residents play a large role in healthcare delivery. The COVID-19 pandemic caused many disruptions to healthcare delivery, as well as to the medical education that residents receive.1 [Rose, pg 1] Resident training and rotations were modified, moved or suspended; limitations were placed on clinical activities; and for many patients, elective surgeries were postponed. Thus, many medical residents have had difficulty completing their training.2,3 [McCarthy, pg 1][RCPSC, pg 1]
As great effort was taken to prevent the spread of infection between patients, residents, and other healthcare professionals, the implementation of Competency-based medical education (CBME) continued across the medical education landscape. The need to prepare future doctors has never been greater, and CBME helps residents change and adapt to new ways of learning and delivering healthcare.
"The profound effects of COVID-19 may forever change how future doctors are educated."
The Royal College’s Guiding Principles
The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (RCPSC) recognized the impact of COVID-19 on medical education and resident training and proposed the following principles for guidance:3 [RCPSC, pg 1]
- Safety comes first
- Patient care takes precedence
- Maintain educational activities, where possible
- Graduating residents and trainees must be competent to practice unsupervised
- Residents’ contributions to the COVID-19 situation are counted toward their requirements
- Training programs incorporate flexibility, including allowing for extra time
- Documentation is critical
This guidance, along with the implementation of CBME, has allowed residents to continue delivering excellent health care during the pandemic while receiving excellent training and education.
The Benefits of CBME During COVID-19
The implementation of CBME over the last few years has been incredibly beneficial in helping residents adapt to this new norm. CBME leverages technology to provide an improved educational experience for medical residents in many ways:4 [Queen’s University_How CBME Works, pg 3]
- Individualized Learning: Residents receive more supervision, assessment, and mentorship
- Increased Flexibility: Residents moving at an accelerated pace have more opportunity to explore electives and research
- Innovative Assessments: New electronic assessment systems offer personalized portfolios, competency-based assessment tools, and increased frequency of assessment
- Meaningful Feedback: Residents get real-time feedback utilizing mobile technology
- Preparedness for Practice: With the potential to accelerate the learning process, CBME learners may be prepared to sit for their final examinations six months to one year earlier
Based on this, residents were able to continue their learning remotely and deliver excellent health care to patients while following COVID-19 safety guidelines.
"Now, while residents still cover the same areas of study, they do so over a longer period of time and simultaneously gain hands-on experience managing the pandemic."
Successful Implementation of CBME
In a recent case study, we discussed how some Canadian medical universities have successfully implemented CBME across all residency programs. One important factor was the use of a robust electronic platform. McMaster University, for example, opted to use the robust and flexible platform, Lumevi Student Information System (MedSIS 3C), which provided the following:
- An intuitive platform with a quick onboarding process
- An inclusive solution that met the requirements of both the RCPSC and College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC)
- Real-time, automatic form-building of all assessment forms based on templates, allowing instantaneous reporting (for example: Learner Summary Reports, Stage Reports, EPA Summary Reports, EPA Milestone Reports, and other real-time reports)
- A mobile interface that allowed for daily, direct, real-time observation via forms on a mobile interface (versus one assessment per block under the previous system)
- A single solution that worked for residents, coaches, and competency committees, providing a single source for all documentation that saved time and resources
Lumevi Student Information System allowed McMaster University to successfully roll out CBME across the majority of its residency programs. Using their example, other programs and institutions can also make the transition as pain-free as possible.
With Lumevi Student Information System, you can cut through the complexity of launching and expanding competency-based medical education for all learners in health sciences.
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A SaaS health sciences student information platform with robust competency-based education features and analytics expertise to optimize learning and decision-making across the complete students journey: from admission to their graduation.
