Medical education at the University of Saskatchewan is competency based, which means all students must demonstrate high proficiency at a predetermined list of competencies in order to graduate. (Listen to a podcast about Comprehending Confusing Competencies.)These competencies are most frequently based on requirements of an external body such as the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (RCPSC). Objectives determine how the Competency is learned. For every competency, there are thousands of objectives that have been achieved during the learner's time in medical school.To illustrate how this plays out, please see the illustration below for the Can Meds Role -Health Advocate.

Hierarchy	Responsibility for identifying	Example
Key Competency	RCPSC	Identify the determinants of health of the population that they serve
Enabling Competency	RCPSC	Identify the barriers to access to care and resources
Medical School Competency	U of S	Identify the barriers to access to care and resources for people in Saskatchewan
PGY1 Program Objective	Department	Identify barriers to access to care and resources for an individual patient
PGY1 Rotation Objective	Clinical Faculty or Department	Assist an individual patient with after hospital care planning

Other Resources

The ACGME Outcomes Project The Outcome Project is a long-term initiative by which the ACGME is increasing emphasis on educational outcome assessment in the accreditation process. Expectations for increased emphasis on outcome assessment are reflected in changes to Program and Institutional Requirements that require programs to:

• Identify learning objectives related to the ACGME's general competencies
• Use increasingly more dependable (i.e. objective) methods of assessing residents' attainment of these competency-based objectives; and,
• Use outcome data to facilitate continuous improvement of both resident and residency program performance.

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