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Meet your residents' basic needs

Residency Program Insider, June 10, 2020

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Editor’s note: The following is an excerpt from The Complete Guide to Continuous GME Accreditation. Click here to order your copy.

The ACGME Common Program Requirements emphasize resident well-being and patient safety by providing programs a framework that ensures the learning environment is supportive of fatigue management, resident well-being, appropriate supervision, appropriate workloads, and effective transitions of care.

Many environmental factors contribute to meeting the aim of promoting the health and welfare of the residents, as well as providing quality patient care. To meet residents’ basic needs, the ACGME expects teaching hospitals to provide them with the following:

• Safe, quiet, secure sleep quarters for night call. This space should be close to the patient-care area to ensure safe and timely care.
• Accessible food. This is extremely important during overnight call shifts in which the resident may need to eat several meals in-house. Residents are often unable to leave the workplace, so many organizations provide meals to their trainees. Some provide all meals, and others only provide meals when residents are on call. Large institutions may have food service available 24/7, while small institutions may maintain food and snack in a refrigerator in the call area.
• A secure space to store personal belongings while on duty. This can be quite difficult as residents may rotate in several different areas of the hospital. The space could be a locker, a call room, or a hotel-variety safe.
• A place to work, as residents are not stationary. Finding a place to put together a grand rounds presentation or even to finish patient notes can be a challenge. Some programs provide a space within the department specifically for the residents, while others may have common space shared with other healthcare providers, which may aid in interdisciplinary communication.
• Access to computers and other office equipment necessary to complete their administrative duties and research.

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