Measuring Competence in Surgical Training through Assessment of Surgical Entrustable Professional Activities.

Assessing competence among surgical residents has been a discussion for several years. Varying methods of assessing competence have been proposed, but surgical competence is presently defined in a very general way through both the ACGME and American Board of Surgery (ABS). Using a SEPA format, as proposed, we could ensure specific understanding of each graduating resident's ability. These results show that the SEPA may be a valid tool for defining and capturing multiple areas of competence that are associated with different disease processes.