Program Directors' Perspectives of ACGME Requirements and Effectiveness of Training Urology Residents: A National Survey in the Era of the Next Accreditation System.

Objective: To qualitatively assess Urology program directors' perspectives on the effectiveness of training residents after implementation of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education's (ACGME) 2011 Next Accreditation System, and identify differences in current perspectives and prior surveyed perspectives toward the ACGME Outcome Project.

Methods: A national survey was developed by an ad hoc committee and distributed electronically to 105 Urology program directors. Thirty-four (34) multiple-choice, Likert-scale questions were administered. Data were evaluated and the results from the survey were compared to the one performed 15 years earlier to determine changes in the learning environment and effectiveness of training urology residents.

Results: The current survey response rate was 89% which was similar to the 2005 response rate of 88%. Most program directors (61%) agreed that 20% protected time for program directors helped with administrative work and 31% felt this time needs to increase for larger residency programs. Seventy percent (70%) agreed that dedicated program administrator time has helped their program. More than half of the respondents agree that the ACGME is training the current workforce effectively.

Conclusion: Current program directors appear to be more accepting of changes required by the Next Accreditation System as compared to the Outcome Project 15 years ago. Our study supports the need for protected time to train residents and to overcome barriers to change.