Remediation practices for surgery residents

BackgroundThis study sought to determine to what extent surgery programs are remediating residents who fail to achieve competency and to offer remediation strategies.MethodsA web-based survey was e-mailed to 253 program directors of all US surgery residency programs. Questions were asked about remediation and probation practices for residents failing to meet the competencies.ResultsPrograms seem to struggle the least with knowing how to remediate medical knowledge and patient care deficits and struggle more with professionalism and interpersonal communication skills. Most programs have no remediation methods in place for systems-based practice and practice-based learning and improvement deficits.ConclusionsSurgery residency programs are cognizant of the reality that some residents perform unsatisfactorily. Most have remediation plans for residents and understand that a process needs to be in place. Remediation methods tend to vary depending on the deficit and are devised tailored to the resident's needs.