Archive for: August, 2008
Monday’s Poll: How many applicants will you interview this year?
Interview season is just around the corner. Here’s the first of a few polls related to interviewing applicants. See how your answers compare to your peers!
The effect of duty hours
Work hour limitations for residents have come under a lot of scrutiny lately. USA Today reports on a new study in Pediatrics that shows the regulations have had little impact on how much sleep residents get, how many hours they work, and the number of mistakes they make.
According to USA Today, the ACGME says the study may not have the current data about work hours.
The comments readers left in response to the USA Today article are pretty interesting. Many physicians, nurses, and residents writing in to describe their own experiences. Definitely worth a read.
What are your thoughts on duty hours? Do you think they increase patient and resident safety, or not?
Get to know your program requirements
Do you have your program requirements memorized? I admit that although I haven’t actually memorized mine, I do keep a copy handy. I generally know what section I should refer to for specific questions. I am constantly amazed at how often we refer back to the requirements for questions about changes we want to make.
Although it doesn’t necessarily need to be the program coordinator who memorizes the requirements, he or she should be very familiar with them as well as your specialty’s board certification requirements.
By knowing the requirements, coordinators can become a central member of the program’s education team. You can spot shortcomings in your training program, identify requirements the program is not meeting, identify requirements you’re excelling at, and be more prepared to help with site visit preparation.
Make sure you have the most up to date version of the requirements as well. Many change every year or two, and you don’t want to miss a new mandate. Read, read, and read the document again and again- I bet you’ll find a new requirement you didn’t know about every time you do!
Goodbye down time. Hello organization.
I used to think about the summer as “down time” in my job. I used the extra time to catch up with filing and reports, and I got things ready for the upcoming academic year.
Those were the good old days. Since early this century (sounds foreboding doesn’t it!), my down time has disappeared. I like to say that down time has gone the way of typewriters and glass soda bottles.
Managing residents’ files, portfolios, evaluations, and other paperwork fills that extra time completely. I suspect that you all know just what I’m talking about.
Organization is more important than ever, and it takes a lot of time to stay organized. Portfolios can be a nightmare to stay on top of, but I’ve found a method that makes it a little easier. Use six or eight section classification folders for resident portfolios and reports. Use one for each year to hold all the resident’s end of year evaluation reports. This makes them easy to find when you need them.
I know this isn’t the only system out there. How do you organize your resdients’ portfolio elements? Leave a comment below.
New ACGME e-newsletter available
Are those of us who march to the ACGME’s drum getting their online newsletter? Super handy if not!
A notice just posted announcing that the summer 2008 edition of the Resident Review is available.
Although it’s geared to your residents, the information and perspective is useful for residency managers too. Check it out!
Wishing residents a happy birthday
We all know residents are extremely busy. A coordinator I recently spoke with for a RPA article told me that, at times, her residents get so busy that they barely remember their own birthdays!
Everyone- okay, most people- appreciate a birthday note, so this coordinator suggests putting your residents’ birthdays in your Outlook calendar. Set a reminder and send them a happy birthday e-mail on their special day. It’s a nice way to show them you care.
Hopefully, you haven’t missed any yet because it’s still the beginning of the academic year!
Teaching palliative care
There is a wonderful website for end-of-life issues called End of Life/Palliative Education Resource Center (EPERC). If your residents work with geriatric patients, you will find it an excellent source of information. One great resource on the site is something called “Fast Facts.” These are short, referenced pieces on all facets of end-of-life care. They are all downloadable and emailable. And check out the other resources, including modules, slide presentations, and various evaluations. We have included this website as a resource for our surgical residents.
Teaching palliative care is difficult for many residency programs. Does anyone else have resources or other interesting ways to educate residents on this important topic? If so, please share them!
Transfers: Sink or swim?
While we don’t get many transfers here, we do get one or two a year. The timing of their transition is always tricky—they’re on payroll at their current program until the end of June, and they start here on July 1st. And by the way, they need to move.
Bite sized pieces, I’ve decided, are the trick to a successful transfer transition. Send new residents as much information as you can ahead of time (hopefully they’re already used to multi-tasking and reading in the shower). Once they arrive, keep the administration stuff to a minimum and focus on “this is how we do it.” Have the transfers shadow with a strong resident from their year and do an intensive training with the chief residents.
Then keep tabs on them. Create a list of items you would’ve gone over with them during orientation, such as reviewing policies, expectations, and program goals. Schedule a series of 15-20 minute appointments with the transfer residents over the next few weeks to cover each of these items. This way, you’re sure you’ve covered everything. There’s nothing worse for a new resent than discovering they were responsible for something that you forgot to tell them about!
And while this may seem obvious . . .don’t forget to introduce them to everyone!
Match data available
If you or your program director like data regarding the Match, the NRMP Web site has some interesting statistics summarizing the March Match results. A press release on the site says, “The 2008 Match offered more positions and made more matches than ever before in the NRMP’s history, and the match rate for U.S. allopathic seniors (94.2 percent) was the highest in 30 years.”
The Web site also offers a more in depth look at the Match results in a 100 page report, “Results and Data: 2008 Main Residency Match.”
Check them out…
Monday’s Poll: GME Track and ACGME ADS updates
Getting started on Monday morning is never easy. Add a little fun to your Monday by taking our poll every week.
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