Assessing the Quality and Effectiveness of Two Common Supervision Models in Training Environments Using a Validated Supervision Instrument

Supervision of residents is a cornerstone of ACGME accreditation and a critical focus of any training program. A nine-faceted, validated survey has been used to assess quality and effectiveness of supervision in training environments. Residents that assign poor scores for faculty members also tend to poorly evaluate the department-at-large. Further, residents that evaluate supervisors unfavorably also tend to report more patient safety mishaps in the context of a less safe work environment. Previous literature that used this supervision scale concluded that residents who reported mean department-wide supervision scores less than 3 (frequent) reported significantly more frequent occurrences of mistakes with negative consequences to patients and medication errors.

Attending physicians often supervise novice junior residents in a direct one-to-one format. Alternatively, a senior resident can be paired with a new trainee under the non-direct (but immediately available) supervision of an attending physician. Resident supervision has been considered an important step towards independent practice.. Both models are ubiquitous in the United States, but no study to date has been performed if one model is better than the other with respect to supervision scores.