Cardiologist Training through the Residency System: a Proposal of the Teaching Area of SAC

Residency is an in-service training system, based on supervised and evaluated scheduled activities. A residency program totrain cardiologists must necessarily meet some conditions: it should be inserted in a healthcare establishment duly authorizedby a competent authority and have equipment and trained human resources interested in teaching. The program must beformalized in a written document specifying professional skills to be achieved, practical activities and evaluation instances.Likewise, the document should detail working administrative conditions (workload, scholarship/salary, insurance and otherrights and responsibilities).Training in Cardiology requires four years: the first year dedicated to Internal Medicine with two months in Intensive Care,and three years in Cardiology. It must necessarily include an Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) course implementedaccording to the American Heart Association regulations.The residency program structure is based on rotations in the various areas of the Cardiology service; the resident participatesin Continuing Education activities developed in the service (forums, rounds, seminars). It must include formative andcumulative evaluations using tools as the mini-CEX, clinical case discussions (CCD) and direct observation of procedures(DOP), and in all cases a constructive feedback should be provided. It is recommended to complement service training with apostgraduate course so that a specialist degree is achieved at the end of the residency after having fulfilled all the instancesof the evaluation process.