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Appropriate Disclosure of Learner Needs

​​​​​​Date of original approval: March 23, 2018
Date of last revision and approval: 
Date for next review: 


  1. These guidelines use these definitions1

    Appropriate disclosure of learner needs is defined as sharing information about learner needs from one educator and/or educational setting to the next. This sharing will occur as needed during educational experiences.

    Learner Handover is the process to be used at the end of an educational experience (e.g. shift, rotation, year) by which one educator and/or educational setting (e.g. instructor/supervisor/rotation lead/facility) provides information to the next (e.g. instructor/supervisor/rotation lead/facility) about the learner’s strengths, limits and about priority areas that need further work, additional supervision or other adjustments to the education.
  2. Resident assessment is confidential process and the assessments (and related materials) are confidential documents, except in the context of learner handover or remediation.
  3. Current university policies re: confidentiality and privacy of detailed assessment data of individual learners will apply.2
  4. Access to assessments will be restricted to the resident him/herself, the Program Director, any individual or Committee responsible for making Promotion decisions, external certification and licensing bodies.
  5. Appropriate disclosure of learner needs will include:
    1. The performance on past rotation(s) for which assessment information review is completed.
    2. Relevant areas of concern and strength that will be shared.
    3. General recommendations for future focused learning, teaching and feedback.
    4. Other information deemed necessary (e.g. E.g. patient safety needs, service needs of clinical teams, need for different approaches to resident supervision
  6. Residency Program Committee (RPC) to establish and approve constructive, fair, transparent and documented processes for assessment data/report(s) to be shared to meet the educational needs of a resident and/or to ensure patient safety.
  7. Resident assessment information will be shared as deemed necessary by the Residency Program Director to meet the educational needs of a resident and/or to ensure patient safety in a manner that is consistent with the RPC approved processes.
  8. Resident assessment information will be shared with Rotation Supervisor/Site Coordinator or designate for rotations to which the resident is scheduled in the future in a manner that is consistent with the RPC approved processes.
  9. Resident assessment information will be shared with professional licensing and credentialing bodies as required.
  10. Residents will be notified of disclosure of assessment data to third parties such as professional licensing and credentialing bodies except where prior consent has been documented.

1 Nayer, M. and S. Glover Takahashi (2017). “Learner handover and appropriate disclosure of learner needs.” In Best Practices in Evaluation & Assessment (BPEA) for Competency Based Medical Education (CBME) in Residency Education (BPEA). L. Probyn, S. Glover Takahashi, M. Ruétalo, C. Abrahams and M. K. Whittaker. Toronto, ON, PostMD, University of Toronto.

2University privacy documents, for example: http://www.provost.utoronto.ca/Assets/Provost+Digital+Assets/Provost/Provost+Digital+Assets/Provost/fippa.pdf http://www.governingcouncil.utoronto.ca/Assets/Governing+Council+Digital+Assets/Policies/PDF/ppmay132008.pdf http://www.governingcouncil.utoronto.ca/Assets/Governing+Council+Digital+Assets/Policies/PDF/ppnov022006.pdf