Medical School

ACGME Core Competencies

In 1999, the Accreditation Council for Medical Education (ACGME) endorsed competencies for all residents in the following six (6) areas:

• Patient Care
• Medical Knowledge
• Practice-based Learning and Improvement
• Interpersonal and Communication Skills
• Professionalism
• Systems-based Practice 

PATIENT CARE

• Communicate effectively and demonstrate caring and respectful behaviors when interacting with patients and their families.
• Gather essential and accurate information about their patients.
• Make informed decisions about diagnostic and therapeutic interventions based on patient information and preferences, up-to-date scientific evidence, and clinical judgment.
• Develop and carry out patient management plans.
• Counsel and educate patients and their families.
• Use information technology to support patient care decisions and patient education.
• Perform competently all medical and invasive procedures considered essential for the area of practice.
• Provide health care services aimed at preventing health problems or maintaining health.
• Work with health care professionals, including those from other disciplines, to provide patient-focused care
   

MEDICAL KNOWLEDGE

• Demonstrate an investigatory and analytic thinking approach to clinical situations.
• Know and apply the basic and clinically supportive sciences which are appropriate to their discipline.
   

PRACTICE-BASED LEARNING AND IMPROVEMENT

• Analyze practice experience and perform practice-based improvement activities using a systematic methodology.
• Locate, appraise, and assimilate evidence from scientific studies related to their patients' health problems.
• Obtain and use information about their own population of patients and the larger population from which their patients are drawn.
• Apply knowledge of study designs and statistical methods to the appraisal of clinical studies and other information on diagnostic and therapeutic effectiveness.
• Use information technology to manage information, access on-line medical information; and support their own education.
• Facilitate the learning of students and other health care professionals
   

INTERPERSONAL AND COMMUNICATION SKILLS

• Create and sustain a therapeutic and ethically sound relationship with patients.
• Use effective listening skills and elicit and provide information using effective nonverbal, explanatory, questioning, and writing skills.
• Work effectively with others as a member or leader of a health care team or other professional group
   

PROFESSIONALISM

• Demonstrate respect, compassion, and integrity; a responsiveness to the needs of patients and society that supercedes self-interest; accountability to patients, society, and the profession; and a commitment to excellence and on-going professional development.
• Demonstrate a commitment to ethical principles pertaining to provision or withholding of clinical care, confidentiality of patient information, informed consent, and business practice.
• Demonstrate sensitivity and responsiveness to patients' culture, age, gender, and disabilities

SYSTEMS-BASED PRACTICE

• Understand how their patient care and other professional practices affect other health care professionals, the health care organization, and the larger society and how these elements of the system affect their own practice.
• Know how types of medical practice and delivery systems differ from one another, including methods of controlling health care costs and allocating resources.
• Practice cost-effective health care and resource allocation that does not compromise quality of care.
• Advocate for quality patient care and assist patients in dealing with system complexities.
• Know how to partner with health care managers and health care providers to assess, coordinate, and improve health care and know how these activities can affect system performance.