Overview

PD^Assistant is a software system designed specifically for Residency Program Directors and Coordinators to distribute and track requirements and assignments for residents in training programs. The strategy gives ownership and Responsibility of assignments, such as ACLS maintenance, scholarly activity, mandatory lectures and more, from program directors to residents. Rubrics allow for objective evaluations of the associated core competencies. Notifications and reporting to program administration is automatic. Documentation of resident performance is seamless.

• Does your 20%-time mean nights and weekends?
• Is your wellness impacted by documentation issues, workload, and ACGME site visit concerns?
• How do you handle a resident falling below expectations?
• Does the thought of an ACGME site visit fill you with dread?
• If your program coordinator takes a new job, can you keep up with the work?
• Do you need more objective criteria for semi-annual evaluations?
• Would you like to have residents take ownership of ACGME, GME, and Hospital Requirements?
• Would you like simple, robust, time saving system with fingertip access to documents and resident performance data?

Recurring themes, issues, and problems motivating the development of PD^Assistant

• Program Requirements
  • ACLS: "My ACGME site visit was 3 weeks away and I found out that more than half my residents ACLS certifications had expired. If it was only a few, then it's their fault, but more than half? I have a programmatic problem"
  • Yearly Lecture: "We have a departmental requirement for an annual presentation or lecture. Tracking this is a nightmare"
  • ACGME Scholarly activity: "Most of my residents are doing something... Do I know where they stand? Can I prove it?"
  • Reminding: "I spend an inordinate amount of time nudging people to do things."
  • The list goes on

  If only there were a simple way to track requirements, remind residents about upcoming deadlines, and record completion

• Mandatory educational requirements
  • Research Principles, Sleep deprivation: "I struggle to find time and lecturers to satisfy the "required non-clinical" lectures. Residents occasionally miss them, and then respond that material was not provided on the ACGME annual survey"

  If only the material or lecture was always available, and it was the residents responsibility to fulfill the requirement and the status was automatically reported

• Documentation
  • The struggling resident, Remediation Plans, Learning Plans, Lecture series "Everyone (DIO, Peers, Education Staff) keeps telling me to Document, Document, Document, but where and how? I have emails, files, texts".

  If only there were an easy, organized, and structured system to handle documentation.

• Files & Documents
  • PLAs, Policies, Rotation learning objectives

  If only there were an easy way to handle all the documents, and a way to ensure the residents (and faculty) have access andfamiliarity with them

• Expectations
  • Presentations, rounds, performance.
  • Conference Attendance
  • Expectations: Some residents continually seem to fall below expectations. Do they not understand what is expected or are they just not doing the work?
  • The list goes on

  If only there were a system to effectively communicate expectations without constantly repeating instructions to everyone, or without spending an inordinate amount of time with specific trainees

• Common Program Requirements: "If these are "Common Program Requirements" why do we all have to have our own solutions. For the "Program Specific Requirements -why cant we share solutions with programs at other institutions".

  If only