Abstract
In clinical clerkships, residents function as trainees, workers, and teachers for other medical students. Although residents care for patients in harsh environments and encounter precarious patient-safety situations, they are working towards becoming competent specialists. Residency education programs are very important in cultivating specialists able to adapt to the rapidly-changing medical environment, and are also necessary to improve the quality of specialist training. Competent specialists not only need clinical competency, but also a wide range of abilities including professionalism, leadership, effective communication, cooperation, and attention to continuous professional development/continuing medical education activities. Each Korean association of specialties has its own educational goals and standardized education programs to help residents learn specific techniques and competencies related to medical care for patients, though the training environment of each residency is different within each trainee hospital. Although it is also important to evaluate residency education programs, currently there is only an examination of knowledge and assessment of skills based on mini-clinical evaluation exercises or direct observation of procedural skills. In order to develop an objective and estimable evaluation tool that can assess the overall achievement level within each training course, it is necessary to evaluate the knowledge, skills, and attitudes of residents. Residency education programs need further attention and reform.
