ACGME Commonly Used Terms

An appropriately credentialed & privileged member of the medical staff who accepts full responsibility for a specific patient’s medical/surgical care.

Reasonable maximum levels of assigned work for residents/fellows consistent with ensuring a quality educational experience. Such work, & its level of intensity, varies by specialty & should be studied by all RRCs before a decision is made to incorporate specifics into the program requirements.

Graded, progressive responsibility for patient care with defined oversight.

Setting for a longitudinal experience in which residents develop a continuous, long term therapeutic relationship with a panel of patients.

Duty hours are defined as all clinical & academic activities related to the program; i.e., patient care (both inpatient & outpatient), administrative duties relative to patient care, the provision for transfer of patient care, time spent in-house during call activities, & scheduled activities, such as conferences. Duty hours do not include reading & preparation time spent away from the duty site.

Recognition by either a resident or supervisor of a level of resident fatigue that may adversely affect patient safety & enactment of a solution to mitigate the fatigue.

Mentally & physically able to effectively perform required duties & promote patient safety.

Knowledge, skills, attitudes, and other attributes for each of the ACGME competencies, organized in a developmental framework from less to more advanced. They are descriptors and targets for resident performance as a resident moves from entry into residency through graduation.

Voluntary, compensated, medically-related work performed outside the institution where the resident is in training or at any of its related participating sites.

Assigned duty within the institution encompassing hours which may be within the normal work day, beyond the normal work day, or a combination of both.

Short sleep periods, taken as a component of fatigue management, which can mitigate the adverse effects of sleep loss.

The relaying of complete & accurate patient information between individuals or teams in transferring responsibility for patient care in the healthcare setting.