Group Decision Making

Robust mechanisms to track resident progression through training are essential for postgraduate medical training programs transitioning to competency-based medical education. Competence committees are groups of faculty and occasionally residents tasked with guiding decision-making processes such as: promotion of residents to the next stage of learning; review, approval, and monitoring of individual learning plans; determination of residents’ readiness to write their licensing exams; and remediation for residents who are not progressing at a typical rate within their training program. We are currently using a variety of approaches, including interviews, naturalistic observation, and experimental research, to better understand how competence committees work together to make promotions decisions in postgraduate medical education.