From Savannah: Day 2 at AHME

By: Julie McCoy April 16th, 2009

The conference really kicked in to high gear this morning, so I decided to whip up a quick post before we go back to more sessions after the afternoon break.

I attended a very informative and helpful session on institutional orientation this morning, presented by Carrie Eckart, MBA, director of GME at Albany Medical Center. Here are a few tidbits I picked up:

As you know, both programs and institutions send new residents an overwhelming amount of paperwork prior to orientation. In addition to including a checklist of documents residents must return to them, Eckart’s institution also posts a spreadsheet online that tracks what documents the GME office has received. Residents can log on and see the spreadsheet too. She said this has cut back on the number of phone calls the GME office receives from residents wondering if their materials made it to them.
Create a master orientation schedule for each specialty and include it in the orientation packets for residents. The GME office collaborates with each specialty and creates a calendar specific to each program that shows when orientation is and other related activities. This makes it easier for residents as they only have to refer to one sheet of paper to find out where they need to be.
Invite spouses to hear the talk on benefits information. The spouses are the other stakeholder when it comes to choosing benefit plans, so it’s not a bad idea to invite them to hear your HR person explain the plans.
Enlist the new chief residents to be Incoming Resident Advisors, and ask them to be available to new residings via e-mail during April, May, and June.
Don’t distribute an agenda; otherwise, attendees may just look for the sessions they think are interesting/most relevant and skip out on the rest. Eckart also saves benefits information as the last program of the day because that’s something most feel they need to stick around for.

That’s a summary of the tips Eckart gave. . . What tips do you have for ensuring residents don’t leave or skip out on important sessions during orientation? Leave them in the comment box below!

Also of note: I heard an excellent presentation this morning by the ACGME’s Timothy Brigham, MDiv, PhD comparing the challenges graduate medical educators face in teaching residents and dealing with faculty and hospital administration to the book Beowulf. Now, remembering Beowulf from my high school English class, I was skeptical this was going to be any good, but it was wonderful, and I recommend that if Brigham is speaking at a conference you’re attending to definitely sit in on his session.