A questionnaire for quality control in postgraduate medical education in Switzerland

Abstract

Background

To ensure high qualification standards in medical institutions, a questionnaire has been developed to evaluate the postgraduate medical education in Switzerland.

Aim

This article describes the development and longitudinal analysis of a questionnaire using eight scales to assess the quality of postgraduate medical education.

Method

The questionnaire has been administered to all residents every year since 2003. In 2020, 8,745 residents returned the questionnaire, resulting in a response rate of 70%. In addition, a survey is conducted annually among the directors of medical institutions.

Results

We present results of the directors’ survey and the resident evaluation from 2020, as well as longitudinal data over 16 years. The mean values of the eight scales remained stable or increased slightly over the years. The decision-making culture scale is generally rated best by the residents, while the evidence-based medicine scale is rated as the least good. The most important drivers of residents’ satisfaction with a training site are the work environment and leadership culture scales. The directors perceive the evaluation to be fair and useful.

Conclusions

The questionnaire represents a reliable and useful tool for the quality control in postgraduate medical training. It provides yearly feedback to the directors regarding how the residents perceive their training giving insights for improvments.

Keywords:

• Postgraduate medical training
• quality control
• residents
• questionnaire

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank all the residents and directors who participated in the annual surveys. Moreover, we thank Prof. Heinz Gutscher for providing valuable input throughout the development of the assessment tool.

Ethics

The present study was approved by the Ethics Committee of ETH Zurich (EK 2021-N-93).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

Data collection was funded by the Swiss Institute for Medical Education SIWF, Bern, Switzerland. There was no further funding from other funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Notes on contributors

Larissa Luchsinger

Larissa Luchsinger, MA, is researcher in Consumer Behavior at ETH Zurich.

Anne Berthold

Anne Berthold, PhD, is researcher in Consumer Behavior at ETH Zurich.

Monika Brodmann Maeder

Monika Brodmann, MD, MME, is president of the Swiss Institute of Medical Education.

Max Giger

Max Giger, MD, is former president of the Swiss Institute of Medical Education.

Werner Bauer

Werner Bauer, MD, is former president of the Swiss Institute of Medical Education.

Michael Siegrist

Michael Siegrist, PhD, is professor in Consumer Behavior at ETH Zurich.