Background: Family medicine residents are evaluated to ensure mastery of required practice skills by a variety of methods. The objective of this paper is to report the results of a sample of the 394 accredited family practice residencies to determine the evaluation methods used and their corresponding value to the program.

Methods: Questionnaires were sent to program directors and chief residents of all accredited family practice residency programs.

Results: Responses were received from the director or chief resident of 354 (90%) programs. For 195 programs, both the chief resident and program director responded. The five most common evaluation methods were the American Board of Family Practice In-Training Examination, formative review sessions, resident chart review, list of procedures performed, and family medicine conference attendance. Of 195 programs for which directors and chief residents both responded, directors and chief residents differed significantly in the reported number of evaluation methods but not in perceived value of those evaluation methods. Neither geographic region, community or university affiliation, class size, nor age of program was associated with differences in numbers of evaluation methods or perceived value of those methods.

Conclusion: Many highly rated resident evaluation methods are being utilized by less than one-third of the programs. The most prevalent forms of evaluation appear to be auditing medical practices and behaviors.