Tips for Writing Good Objectives

Objectives are statements that explain how a planned educational experience will impact the learner. An objective states what a learner...

• knows...
• is able to do...
• is like... ...as a result of the indicated instruction.

Objectives:

1. Need to be measurable
2. Contain a verb (e.g. “lists,” “performs,” “conducts,” “completes”)
3. Are written to an appropriate level of specificity (i.e. for a whole residency program, the objectives are going to be quite broad, but still measurable or observable statements of “knows,” “is able to do” or “is like”).

Goals differ from objectives in that goals are more general or global statements of the impacts of an educational program. Goals and objectives are distinct statements and are best placed under separate document headings. Here’s some examples of each:

1. Goal: (program specific example) Residents will gain a comprehensive knowledge of the pediatric endocrine system in both healthy and compromised states.

    a) Objective: Resident will be able to conduct a thorough patient evaluation that leads to reliable diagnosis of endocrine system malfunction.

    b) Objective: Resident will be able to explain the mechanisms that regulate growth during childhood and the causes of growth-related abnormalities.

2. Goal: (Systems Based Practice example) Residents will develop an understanding of the complex and interrelated systems that are used to provide patient care.

    a) Objective: Resident will be able to follow a designated patient case through the entire hospital stay and list interactions between systems which produce the potential for errors and develop a plan for reducing the potential for these errors.

    b) Objective: Resident will be able to explain the fiscal components of a hospital billing record for one of the clinical services they are rotating through.