THE RESIDENCY CURRICULUM RESOURCE: A USERS’ PERSPECTIVE
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* James W. Jarvis
* Todd Shaffer
* Tom Miller
* Karen Mitchell
* W. Fred Miser

Ten months ago, the Association of Family Medicine Residency Directors (AFMRD) and the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine (STFM) launched the subscription version of the national Residency Curriculum Resource. This is the first time residency programs across the country have partnered to create a national curriculum that can be shared for teaching and learning.

Through a peer-reviewed process, more than 220 topics are being developed into a standardized overall curriculum. The Residency Curriculum Resource has always contained information available free of charge, including content overview and links to the AAFP and other resources that can be used in residency education. The Residency Curriculum Resource is much like an app that you can get for free, which contains some basic features; however, if you want the full content you’ll need to pay.

At the time of this writing, 177 programs have paid for their first annual subscription. Some programs are currently using the Residency Curriculum Resource for organizing their curriculum and learning sessions, filling in areas where previously quality content was not readily available. Faculty have taken this to heart and are using the learning sessions to improve their own lectures by adding case studies, as well as pre- and post-tests. Because these presentations are peer reviewed, they give a standardized set of information. Rather than concentrate on the esoteric and long lists of items to memorize, the Residency Curriculum Resource contains the meat of what must be learned, and creates discussion and further learning and scholarly inquiry for programs.

The advantage of the Residency Curriculum Resource is that it is a continuous, living repository. By the time the 2016 Program Directors Workshop rolls around it is expected that nearly all of the initial curriculum will be finished. New content will be added over time, and all content will be continually updated. Authors are required to keep their information up-to-date and consider feedback on how to improve the learning and content in each session.

Since this is a large shared system designed to improve program efficiency and quality—and to expand over time—the Residency Curriculum Resource is on track to be an annual investment no program will want to be without.

Program faculty can now spend less time trying to create learning sessions and instead concentrate on effective teaching methods. Small programs with limited faculty no longer need to spend so much time reinventing the wheel. The AFMRD would encourage every program in the country to use these tools to improve their training, using their time effectively mentoring and guiding residents to self-learning. The faculty time saved in recreating and updating over 220 learning sessions translates into potential savings of thousands of dollars for a residency program.

We have longed for the ability to have a living and shared system for all programs to improve the quality and performance of their residents on both board exams and clinical practice of family medicine. The Residency Curriculum Resource fills that need.

This is such an exciting time for family medicine residency education. We look forward to the expansion and enhancements within the Residency Curriculum Resource over the coming years. We are committed to support the improvement of medical education in family medicine residencies through this ambitious initiative

*   © 2016 Annals of Family Medicine, Inc.