Has your program ever misjudged your choice of a resident? Interviewed well yet performed below your expectations? As a Program Director for three separate surgical residences, I conducted a study with ten Program Directors and faculty members to identify a resident’s desirable and undesirable characteristics. We found the unwanted behaviors became apparent after the resident was under contract. The study results uncovered undesirable behavioral traits such as poor judgment, a tendency to be lazy, cover-up mistakes, pretending to be knowledgeable, and disengaging. Without a viable solution for these concerns, Residency Directors often experienced disappointment by the imbalance between medical knowledge and skills and less developed relationship-based skills. In retrospect, was a better choice overlooked?

Experiencing one or more of these concerns confirms unreliability in the selection process. The compelling question is how to develop and improve residents’ judgements, values, and self-awareness? Missing is an objective, evidence-based program to assess and build resident attributes in judgement, values, and self-awareness. For residency educational excellence, there is a need to integrate an evidence-based curriculum in Judgement, Values, and Self-Awareness with the existing curriculum in medical knowledge and skills. The scientific basis for that curriculum follows.