C4 - 04: INSIGHTS FROM THE NORTH: IMPLEMENTATION, STRUCTURE, AND FUNCTION OF COMPETENCE COMMITTEES IN CANADIAN SURGICAL TRAINING
Anita Acai, MSc, Stephen Kelly, DM, Ranil R Sonnadara, PhD; McMaster University

Competence committees (CCs; known as clinical competency committees in the United States) play a key role in competency-based medical education (CBME) curricula by aggregating data from multiple sources to recommend promotion decisions. However, implementation of CBME in Canada is still in its infancy, and there are limited data to inform best practices around CC implementation and functioning. In Canada, Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery (OTL-HNS) was one of the first programs to undergo the transition to CBME, thus providing a unique opportunity to study the early implementation and functioning of CCs in surgical training. In this session, we will present a brief case study of a CC operating in an OTL-HNS residency training program at a large Canadian medical centre. We will provide an overview of the CC’s structure, implementation, and preliminary quantitative and qualitative data with respect to its functioning. Our presentation will conclude with a discussion of the strengths and challenges of group-based approaches to decision making in surgical training. We anticipate that this session will be useful for sharing and comparing group decision-making practices across different countries and training contexts.