Ready for practice? National recommendations for emergency medicine transition to practice curriculum.

Abstract

Background: Transition from residency to unsupervised practice represents a critical stage in learning and professional identity formation, yet there is a paucity of literature to inform residency curricula and emergency department transition programming for new faculty.

Objective: The objective of this study was to develop consensus-based recommendations to optimize the transition to practice phase of emergency medicine training.

Methods: A literature review and results of a survey of emergency medicine (EM) residency program directors informed focus groups of recent (within 5 years) EM graduates. Focus group transcripts were analyzed following conventional content analysis. Preliminary recommendations, based on identified themes, were drafted and presented at the 2022 Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians (CAEP) Academic Symposium on Education. Through a live presentation, symposium attendees representing the Canadian national EM community participated in a facilitated discussion of the recommendations. The authors incorporated this feedback to construct a final set of 14 recommendations, 8 targeted toward residency training programs and 6 specific to department leadership.

Conclusion: The Canadian EM community used a structured process to develop 14 best practice recommendations to enhance the transition to practice phase of residency training as well as the transition period in the career of junior attending physicians.