Using the CLER Pathways to Excellence to Evaluate the Learning Environments at a Multi-Site Institution

ABSTRACT Background The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education Clinical Learning Environment Review (CLER) program visits 1 participating site per sponsoring institution. While valuable, feedback on that site does not necessarily generalize to all learning environments where trainees and faculty provide clinical care, and institutions may be missing significant insight and feedback on other clinical learning sites. Objective We explored how the Emory Learning Environment Evaluation process—modeled after CLER—could be used to improve the learning environments at 5 major clinical training sites. Methods Participants were recruited via e-mail. Sites hosted separate 60-minute sessions for medical students, residents and fellows, and faculty. We used the CLER Pathways to Excellence to develop a combination of fixed choice and opened-ended questions deployed via an audience response system and verbal queries. Data were analyzed primarily through descriptive statistics and graphs. Results Across si...