Association of Pediatric Program Directors (APPD): Links

Summaries of Duty Hours Action Team

Executive Summary: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4

APPD Action Team Addresses ACGME Duty Hours Standards

From October 2, 2002 through November 20, 2002, over 30 APPD member pediatric program directors and chief residents participated in a series of one-hour conference calls to discuss, brainstorm, and share ideas about how to adopt the new Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME ) Work Duty Hour Standards, for which compliance is mandated by July 1, 2003. We were fortunate to have a number of New York program directors as active participants, since New York programs have already adopted many strategies to meet now fairly long standing and rigorously enforced duty hour regulations of their state.

The Action Team focused on the following topic areas as those of potential impact with the adoption of new Work Duty Hour Standards:

Night Float Systems
Institutional Support
Re-engineering Resident Work and Redefining the Ideal Educational Environment
Professionalism
Small Programs Perspective
Continuity Clinic
Integration of the Competencies and Feedback to the Residency Review Committee (RRC)

Within each summary you will find ideas, potential solutions, opinions, considerations, literature, and references relevant to the topic area. Please provide us with any additional information, corrections and ideas that you may have, so that we can continue to refine the product of our efforts dynamically for member use over the coming months.

This project was an exciting and energizing experience for Action Team participants. Weekly conference calls proved to be a workable and useful way to address an issue that all of our pediatric residency programs must face over a relatively short time frame, as we all must adhere to the new ACGME Work Duty Hour Standards starting July 1, 2003.

Theodore C. Sectish, MD
President-Elect
APPD