The “Supervision” CLER domain has six pathways that focus on education about supervision, faculty and resident perception of supervision, self monitoring/the role of family, non-physician staff and GME in supervision.
The most important take home points for supervising attendings is understanding the different levels of supervision.
What, Why & How of Supervision
What
There are 4 levels of supervision and PGY1 residents must ALWAYS have either direct supervision or indirect supervision with direct supervision immediately available.
The 4 types of supervision are:
- Direct Supervision: You are physically present with the resident.
- Indirect Supervision with Direct Supervision Immediately Available: You are in the same building or department with the resident but you may be in another room and could be called for help immediately.
- Indirect Supervision: You are at your home or office and you speak to the resident on the phone about their assessment & plan and you could go to the hospital if the resident needed you to be present.
- Oversight: Only appropriate for senior FM residents in the FM resident clinic. You review their documentation and plans after the patient has left and care has been rendered.
“PGY1 residents must ALWAYS have either direct supervision or indirect supervision with direct supervision immediately available”
Why
Remember this is your patient and your license. Supervising novice learners appropriately not only protects your patient and your license but it also will make your life easier in the future because you will have create to competent independent physicians. As a result, you will be comfortable with their level of skill so that you can sleep soundly in the future!
How
- You, as the attending physician, have the authority to give any learner progressive levels of autonomy. In order to do this in a safe patient environment you need to correctly diagnose the learner and gage where they are at in their skill level.
- A good first step is to error on the side of direct supervision and then you can grant them autonomy from there. Sometimes it can be a more senior resident who is supervising an intern.
- Oversight is only for Family Medicine CMS exception.
Feel free to reach out to GME to help you improve on your ability to diagnose your learner.