Graduated responsibility and competency-based education in pathology residency programs: a five-year semi-longitudinal landscape assessment on autonomy and supervision

Abstract

Pathology residency training has been criticized for having too little opportunities for resident autonomy. As graduate medical education moves to competency-based models measuring competency and giving autonomy for specific tasks will be important. To determine how much autonomy residents are currently granted we surveyed pathology residency directors with regard to a list of usual pathology tasks and compared responses with those of a similar survey from 2018. Among the 29 programs whose directors responded, we found a considerable range within which some programs give much autonomy and others very little. Most programs did not describe measuring competency before granting performance of specific activities. We urge that restrictive programs examine the more permissive programs to see how they can move toward granting more autonomy.