Abstract
The goal of residency programs is to provide an educational venue with graduated responsibility and increasing levels of independence as preparation for entering the unsupervised practice of medicine. Surgical programs are required to both cultivate and convey skills pursuant to three fundamental domains: a sufficient fund of knowledge, technical competence in surgical procedures, and a degree of professionalism to enable ethical independent practice. Never before has the expectation that residency programs provide graduated responsibility in preparation for entering the unsupervised practice of medicine been so clearly articulated as it has by Nasca in the recent Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) work-hour guideline revisions. The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons has provided similar guidance in Canada. Yet, as we progress further into the second decade of work-hour restrictions, it is unclear that we have adequately defined or can recognize the critical end points essential to trainee competency. What is clear is that we must achieve these end points in a manner different from that prior to the introduction of work-hour restrictions. We present the current state of thinking from North America and contrast this with the evolving medical educational process in the United Kingdom.