The Entering Resident Readiness Assessment (ERRA), developed by the ACS Division of Education, is an innovative online, case-based instrument to measure the preparedness of entering surgical residents (PGY-1).
ACS ERRA focuses on clinical decision-making for cases frequently encountered at the beginning of resident training. The assessment provides surgery program directors and residents with psychometrically rigorous measures of key decision-making skills needed to safely assume their new clinical responsibilities.
Short case scenarios are used to address essential clinical topics through special "key features" questions that specifically assess clinical decision-making skills instead of simple recall of factual knowledge. Results of the assessment can be used to identify strengths and to develop learning plans in areas that may need reinforcement for individual residents or the entering group as a whole.
Assessment Description
The ACS ERRA is a psychometrically rigorous, formative assessment of PGY-1 preparedness, focusing on 20 clinical topics that incoming surgical residents are likely to encounter. The ACS Division of Education methodically defined a validated domain of cases and recruited expert faculty to develop the assessment. Residents respond to 40 short clinical cases, each followed by questions that specifically assess key clinical decisions. As a formative tool, the ACS ERRA is intended to assess residents' decision-making at the time they enter surgical residency; it is not intended to measure factual knowledge recall or to be used as a summative assessment.
Response formats include short, write-in answers (for example, listing possible diagnoses) or the selection of options from menus containing possible next steps in the investigation or management of the problem. The specially designed questions use the internationally proven “key features” approach as established by Georges Bordage, MD, MSc, PhD, and Gordon Page, MA, EdD, in which the case scenarios require medical knowledge to be applied appropriately at critical decision points during management of the case. Key features may include essential steps required to resolve a problem, a particularly challenging aspect in the identification and management of the problem, or actions most likely associated with errors in practice. Because not all steps in the management of patient problems are equally important, assessment time is best spent by focusing exclusively on the most challenging aspects that will distinguish appropriate performance.
