Archive for: September, 2008
Use resident presentations to teach the interpersonal and communication skills competency
Recently, I attended our grand rounds session during which one of my chief residents presented. As I watched her field questions, I thought about what tremendous growth takes place between the first year and the final year of training. Others often ask chief residents for their opinions, and the questions are not always easy. The poise and confidence residents exhibits as they speak is a reflection of their training and preparation.
During this presentation, I got to thinking about how feedback on presentations can teach residents public speaking skills and lessons that support the competencies of professionalism and interpersonal and interpersonal and communication skills.
Program managers should consider adding a focused training session on presentation preparation to the curriculum. Doing so supports development in components of professionalism and interpersonal communication skills. A comprehensive evaluation of a presentation could include the following components:
- Room environment and management
- Appearance (professional dress, etc)
- Body language
- Speech patterns of the presenter
- Physical look of the presentation itself (color scheme, use of graphics, amount of content per slide and structure of content)
This activity would not only boost residents’ formal presentation skills, but they can also help residents communicate better in small group teaching activities and interaction with patients and patients’ families.
Do any of your readers have such an activity as part of their curriculum? Please share it by leaving a comment below.
Monday’s Poll: Pharma funding
When the ACGME revamped the Institutional Requirements in 2007, the organization added a requirement mandating that institutions have a vendor relationship policy in place.
The ACGME requirements do not contain any instructions on what limits, if any, an institution should put on the GME-industry relationship. I thought it would be interesting to see how different programs handle pharma funding. Answer today’s poll below!
PIF Made Simple
I spoke with a coordinator today who had a site visit last month. It’s an understatement to say she’s happy that it’s over.
We discussed how much time, effort, and preparation goes into preparing the PIF. She lamented that program directors and coordinators do not have a lot of guidance or great resources to consult as they complete this very important document.
The good news is that we just published Program Information Form Made Simple: A Guide to Completing the ACGME PIF, by Jeri L. Whitten, C-TAGME, and Vicki Hamm.
The book offers:
- Time lines for preparation
- Heads up on some of the most common PIF traps
- Sample PIF answers regarding how you teach and assess the competencies
- Solutions for organization
I posted a sample chapter, Chapter 3: Countdown: One Year Before the Site Visit, in the Forms and Documents section. It tells readers what PIF preparation steps they should take a year prior to the site visit.
You can also find out more about the book by clicking here.
Sermo serves up advice for graduating residents
In yesterday’s post, I shared a story about a recent residency grad who is adjusting to practicing on her own.
Imagine my surprise when I received the AMA e-Voice newsletter in my inbox highlighting a discussion on Sermo started by a resident who is seeking advice about finding a job after graduating. Sermo is an online community where physicians can share information and advice.
According to the blurb, the resident is seeking guidance from others in the community about interviewing, hospital recruiting companies, caseloads, and more. If you have advice to share with this young physician, log onto the site. (Note: Only physicians can join Sermo)
What advice do you give your graduating residents? What do you find their biggest concerns are? Leave a comment below!
Residents take on their first job
A few weeks ago, a good friend of mine told me all about the graduation party she attended for her sister who just finished her residency. Because my mind is on residents 40 hours a week, I asked how her sister likes her new job, and I was surprised by the answer.
The good news is, my friend says her sister loves the job and is already making great bonds with patients. However, this new physician is a little nervous about being out there on her own without supervision.
Don’t get me wrong, she’s a great physician who is confident in her skill set and made it through residency with flying colors. But, I can see how making decisions without any affirmation from someone else would seem scary after years of attending physicians checking up on every little move you make.
It made me curious about how you all help ease your graduating residents into the real world. What do you do to help them feel at ease practicing on their own? Leave a comment and let me know!
Duty hours violations puts program’s accreditation in jeopardy
On Sunday, the Boston Globe reported that the surgery program at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) may lose its accreditation due to duty hour violations.
According to the Globe, after a review in July, the ACGME cited the program for not meeting the standards. During its review of the program, the council identified regular instances of residents working seven days straight and 90 hour weeks, the article reports.
BIDMC administration had until yesterday to fix the problems when the ACGME visited the program to check on their progress.
In the article, the head of the surgery residency program discusses what they’ve done to prevent violations. He also points out that if a resident is at the limit, and a patient walks in with an aneurysm, the resident “doesn’t have the luxury of saying ‘I’m sorry, I have to go home.’”
How does your program handle instances like the supervisor of the surgery program describes? What do you do when a resident is up against their limit, and a patient rolls in with a life-threatening injury?
Saving ERAS applications electronically
Does everyone download copies of matched candidates’ ERAS applications?
If not, you should consider it. They’re good to have for future use and reference. I just encountered a situation where I needed an ERAS application of a transfer resident, and his intern year institution only had a hard copy.
After Match Day, It is extremely easy to just download a PDF copy of the ERAS application for all of your your matched residents. You can pick and choose which documents you want, but you might as well download the whole application.
Once they’re on my computer, we save them in folders categorized by year. This way we have them forever. I recommend you put a strong security software, such as a firewall, on the computer you store these documents because they contain so much identity-sensitive information.
While I keep a hard copy too, it is great to have the electronic version also because many resident want to see their files when they apply to fellowship. (I exclude the score sheets when I send back to them)
Does anyone else have any other clever ideas for storing ERAS applications for your residents?
Monday’s Poll: Who gets to interview candidates?
Every program conducts interviews differently. Today’s poll looks at who interviews your applicants.
Solutions for never ending filing
Do you often wonder what it takes to get those elves to come to your office to do the filing?
I’ve gone as far as putting out milk and cookies. It seems like a good idea until I end up eating them. I’m left sitting there with all the filing and a few extra calories!
Enable or empower?
In an effort to increase compliance in all areas of the program, the coordinators and admins page the residents constantly. Time for their didactic conference? Page them! They’ve neglected to turn in paperwork? Page them! Too many residents missing from weekly admin meeting? Page them! Time to check in on duty hours? Page them!
I can’t honestly say this has increased compliance in any area, but it has set a bad precedent. The residents don’t make a move without a page. When we don’t page them, the residents don’t know where to go or what to do. They just end up calling us to find out!
This significant amount of hand holding has created a lack of resourcefulness on the part of the residents. It’s also a huge time suck for us administrators.
My goal is to solve this problem by taking the conference schedule we currently have and convert it to a master calendar the residents can access online. It will list all educational conferences, so on any given day of any week, the residents can see where to go and what to do. The second, and more difficult step, will be to retrain the residents to use this as their “go-to” resource rather than deferring to us.
I’ll keep you posted and let you know how it turns out! If anyone else has dealt with a situation like this and has some words of wisdom, I’d love to hear them.
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