SpringerLink - Journal Article

Original Article

Expansion of the Coordinator Role in Orthopaedic Residency Program Management

Richard E. Grant¹, Laurie A. Murphy² and James E. Murphy¹

(1)	Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, University Hospitals Case Medical Center, Case Western Reserve University, 11100 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44106, USA

(2)	Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, Case School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, 11100 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44106, USA

Received: 18 December 2007 Accepted: 18 December 2007 Published online: 9 January 2008

Abstract The Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education’s (ACGME) Data Accreditation System indicates 124 of 152 orthopaedic surgery residency program directors have 5 or fewer years of tenure. The qualifications and responsibilities of the position based on the requirements of orthopaedic surgery residency programs, the institutions that support them, and the ACGME Outcome Project have evolved the role of the program coordinator from clerical to managerial. To fill the void of information on the coordinators’ expanding roles and responsibilities, the 2006 Association of Residency Coordinators in Orthopaedic Surgery (ARCOS) Career survey was designed and distributed to 152 program coordinators in the United States. We had a 39.5% response rate for the survey, which indicated a high level of day-to-day managerial oversight of all aspects of the residency program; additional responsibilities for other department or division functions for fellows, rotating medical students, continuing medical education of the faculty; and miscellaneous business functions. Although there has been expansion of the role of the program coordinator, challenges exist in job congruence and position reclassification. We believe use of professional groups such as ARCOS and certification of program coordinators should be supported and encouraged.

Each author certifies that he or she has no commercial associations (eg, consultancies, stock ownership, equity interest, patent/licensing arrangements, etc) that might pose a conflict of interest in connection with the submitted article.

Richard E. Grant
Email: Richard.Grant@uhhs.com

References

1.	Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine. Available at: http://www.im.org. Accessed July 2, 2007.

2.	Blakemore LC, Hall JM, Biermann JS. Women in surgical residency training programs. J Bone Joint Surg Am. 2003;85:2477–2480.

3.	Breen E, Irani JL, Mello MM, Whang EE, Zinner MJ, Ashley SW. The future of surgery: today’s residents speak. Curr Surg. 2005;62:543–546.

4.	Delzell JE Jr, Ringdahl EN, Kruse RL. The ACGME core competencies: a national survey of family medicine program directors. Fam Med. 2005;37:576–580.

5.	Dirschl DR. Scoring of orthopaedic residency applicants: is a scoring system reliable? Clin Orthop Relat Res. 2002;399:260–264.

6.	Dirschl DR, Campion ER, Gilliam K. Resident selection and predictors of performance: can we be evidence based? Clin Orthop Relat Res. 2006;449:44–49.

7.	Gilbart MK, Cusimano MD, Regehr G. Evaluating surgical resident selection procedures. Am J Surg. 2001;181:221–225.

8.	Heard JK, Allen RM, Clardy J. Assessing the needs of residency program directors to meet the ACGME general competencies. Acad Med. 2002;77:750–751.

9.	Kettelkamp DB. The evolving structure of orthopaedic residency education. Clin Orthop Relat Res. 2006;449:16–19.

10.	Kragh JF Jr, Bagg MR, Ward JA, Omer GE Jr. Measuring medical education and curriculum during orthopedic surgical residency. J Surg Res. 2005;123:268–274.

11.	Kusuma SK, Mehta S, Sirkin M, Yates AJ, Miclau T, Templeton KJ, Friedlaender GE. Measuring the attitudes and impact of the eighty-hour workweek rules on orthopaedic surgery residents. J Bone Joint Surg Am. 2007;89:679–685.

12.	Mainiero MB. Responsibilities of the program director. Acad Radiol. 2003;10(suppl 1):S16–S20.

13.	Nawotniak RH. Is your residency program coordinator successful? Curr Surg. 2006;63:143–144.

14.	Otterstad D. The role of the residency coordinator. Acad Radiol. 2003;10(suppl 1):S48–S53.

15.	Peabody T. The effect of work hour restrictions on the education of orthopaedic surgery residents. Clin Orthop Relat Res. 2006;449:128–133.

16.	Simon MA. Lessons from our medical colleagues: proposals to improve orthopaedic surgery graduate medical education. J Bone Joint Surg Am. 2004;86:2073–2076.

17.	The ACGME Outcome Project. Rev. 2005. Available at: http://www.acgme.org/outcome/. Accessed April 11, 2007

18.	The National Board for Certification of Training Administrators of Graduate Medical Education. Orthopaedic Surgery. Available at: http://www.tagme.org. Accessed April 11, 2007.

19.	Thordarson DB, Ebramzadeh E, Sangiorgio SN, Schnall SB, Patzakis MJ. Resident selection: how are we doing and why? Clin Orthop Relat Res. 2007;459:255–259.

20.	Walker JL, Janssen H, Hubbard D. Gender differences in attrition from orthopaedic surgery residency. J Am Med Womens Assoc. 1993;48:182–184, 193.

21.	Wong JG, Fagan M, Pinsker J. Society of General Internal Medicine Medical Resident Clinic Director’s Interest Group Consortium. Expectations of and for the medical director of the resident’s ambulatory clinic. Am J Med. 2001;111:84–87.