Author Archive for: Julie McCoy
Monday’s Poll: Helicopter parents
November 16th, 2009 
There’s no question that taking an active roll in your child’s education is important. But, one would think that by the time that child became a medical student or resident, the parent would realize its time to let Junior fly from the nest on his own.
Unfortunately for program directors and coordinators, this is not the case. At the 4th Annual Residency Program Management Workshop, Tracy Sanson, MD presented a wonderful session on educating the different generations of learners in residency programs today.
During the discussion about Generations X and Y, the topic of helicopter parents came up. . . you know, parents that hover over their children.
One coordinator said that she has received a phone call from a resident’s parent who was concerned that one of the attending physicians had been a little harsh with her. Another program director said that he had received a call from a parent after the resident received a negative evaluation.
Obviously, this is the exception rather than the rule, but are you prepared to take this call from a parent?
Sanson says when a parent calls her, she says, “I appreciate your interest in your child’s training, but this situation is between Dr. X and I. He/she and I will handle this as adults and colleagues.”
Have you received calls from parents concerned about their child’s performance, or feelings? Take our poll and tell us how you handled it in the comment box.
Faculty development tips and ideas
November 16th, 2009
This month’s issue of RPA features a lengthy story on how to build a faculty development program from scratch. Of course, you can’t write a story on faculty development without talking about what topics to cover and how to actually get faculty members to attend the sessions. Here are a few tips I picked up from my sources.
Faculty members are often too busy with their patient care responsibilities to attend educational session, so you must schedule around them. Try scheduling early morning, lunch time, or dinner time sessions when they typically do not see patients.
Also plan sessions before or after other important meetings faculty members have to attend. For example, if they attend a monthly division meeting from 8am-10am, then schedule a faculty development workshop at 10:30am while they’re already out of the patient care mode.
When it comes to selecting topics, the trick is to pick subjects that lend themselves to interactive exercises. Nobody wants to sit through an hour-long lecture. Use case studies, roll play, panel discussions, small group exercises to tackle some of the following topics:
- Evaluating learners/how to fill out an evaluation form accurately
- Managing the problem learner
- Incorporating the ACGME competencies in your teaching
- Evidence-based medicine for the busy clinician
Highlighting that the program appreciates faculty members’ teaching efforts is also important. Consider writing a quarterly newsletter focusing on the program’s educational efforts. In the newsletter, recognize a faculty educator and his or her teaching efforts.
You can also include helpful information for the faculty, such as journal articles on teaching methods, new rotations, days that residents will be out because of Board exams, and new educational initiatives.
What does your program do to promote faculty development? What topics are some of your most popular? Leave a comment in the box below.
Monday’s Poll: Policies for keeping documentation
November 9th, 2009
During the 4th Annual Residency Program Management Workshop, Ruth Nawotniak asked the audience how many people had unlimited space for storing documentation, resident files, applications, etc. Literally, one very lucky person raised her hand.
Residency program quarterly report template
November 2nd, 2009
A few weeks ago, Molly Ostrowski, surgery coordinator, won free registration for the 4th Annual Residency Program Management Workshop. Her entry was featured on Residency Manager Blog.
As the post describes, Ostrowski began compiling quarterly reports that give a snapshot of how the program is complying with ACGME requirements. I interviewed Ostrowski and her program director, Dane Smith, MD for an RPA article and got even more great information about the reports, how she puts them together, and how Smith and Ostrowski hope to use them as documentation of program improvements for an upcoming site visit.
Because so many blog readers asked for a sample report, I uploaded a template for the quarterly report. I hope you find it helpful. Download it from our Forms and Documents page.
Thanks for sharing, Molly!
November to-do list for coordinators
October 30th, 2009
Hope everyone had a spooky Halloween. Time to clear out the skeletons, ghosts, and pumpkins, and make way for the turkeys, cornucopias, and pilgrim decorations!
Between redecorating and planning your Thanksgiving feast, add the following tasks to your to-do list at work:
- Interviews continue
- Medical Student Performance Evaluations are released
- Follow up and send reminders to faculty regarding interview dates
- Continue monitoring and updating ERAS as you receive, send out interview requests, and screen out applicants
What else is on your list for this month? Add it to the comment box below!
ACGME gives update on duty hour reform
October 29th, 2009
Since the IOM released the report on resident work hours last December, the ACGME has been working hard to address the concerns the IOM raised. After nearly a year of information gathering, ACGME CEO Thomas Nasca, MD released a letter to the GME community giving an update of their efforts.
Now accepting nominations for program coordinator award
October 26th, 2009
In case you didn’t see our exciting news last week, HCPro, Inc. is excited to announce the Professionalism in GME Program Management Award.
The award recognizes residency and fellowship program coordinators whose leadership, teamwork, and professionalism embody an image of excellence and who make a difference in improving resident and fellow training, training program management, and the training program environment. It celebrates those who embody a positive image of the program coordinator that elevates the profession as a whole.
The Web site opens for nominations today. You can nominate yourself or a coordinator colleague. Visit the award Web site for more information.
Winners will be honored at an award ceremony during the 5th Annual Residency Program Management Workshop in 2010 (details to be announced) and profiled in HCPro’s national residency program publications, including Residency Program Alert and www.ResidencyManager.com.
Live blog: Stick a label on teachable moments and feedback
October 26th, 2009
Tracy Sanson, MD, educational director of the emergency medicine residency program at University of South Florida, gave an excellent presentation this morning about balancing bedside teaching and productivity.
She brought up an interesting point that it’s common for residents to get to the end of a rotation and say that the attendings never gave them feedback. Although this maybe the case sometimes, it’s pretty hard to imagine that no one ever gave residents feedback. Many times, Sanson says the feedback just goes right over the residents’ head. That’s why she now labels her feedback clearly for residents.
For example, after a patient encounter, Sanson will talk to the resident, and blatantly say, “Let me give you some feedback about that. . .”. Or, if she doesn’t have a chance to talk to residents, she will e-mail them later that day with her feedback, and title the e-mail “Feedback”.
Same goes for teachable moments. After a teachable moment occurs with a patient, Sanson pulls residents aside and says, “So, what did you think about that teachable moment back there?” Often, her comment in met with a blank stare by the resident, and Sanson spells out just what the resident learned during the patient encounter.
Consider labeling your feedback and teachable moments for your residents.
Live blog: When to bring in a third party during remediation discussions
October 23rd, 2009
This morning is off to another great start at the 4th Annual Residency Program Management Workshop.
Franklin Medio, PhD, just finished his session on remediation, which was full of great information for attendees!
Part of the discussion focused on whether program directors should have a third person sit in on meetings regarding a resident’s performance issues. Although some people think having another person involved will intimidate the resident, according to Medio, it is always a good idea that a third party attend that meeting to take notes about the conversation. The program coordinator is a great person to bring in, and he or she should record any and all important details that come out of the meeting.
If you chose not to have a third person in the meeting at first, Medio suggests calling the coordinator in if the resident chooses not to sign a document summarizing the conversation, remediation plan, etc. Simply write on the document that Dr. X refused to sign the document, and that Mrs. Y, program coordinator, witnessed that the meeting took place and that Dr. X refused to sign the document.
Have to get into the next sessions, but I will report more soon.
Live Blog: Attendees and speakers share best practices for collecting evaluations
October 22nd, 2009
The 4th Annual Residency Program Managment Workshop is well underway!
During our first session, a program director asked the speaker pannel and attendees how he can get faculty members to take their evaluation responsibilities seriously.
This set off a firestorm of comments and suggestions. From what I gather, this is a very common problem in GME, so don’t worry, you’re not alone.
It’s up to the program director, with the help of the coordinator, to continually remind faculty of their responsibility for evaluting the residents. If possible, ask department chairs to include evaulation completion rates into faculty members’ annual reviews.
Franklin Medio also suggested including behavior anchors for each rating available on the evaluation. So, give examples of what constitutes a score of “1″ on a five-point scale, and so on. He also suggested that you require faculty members to justify any scores of 5 (or whatever the highest score is on the scale) in writing on the evaluation. If the faculty member does not do that, make it a policy to automatically bump that score down to the next highest level.
During our coordinator bootcamp, one coordinator pleaded with attendees and speakers to share solutions for getting faculty members to evaluate the residents. She and her program director have literally brought a hard copy version of the evaluation to a faculty member, asked him to fill it out right there, and give it back to them. He wouldn’t do it!!
Share your strategies for getting faculty members to evaluate residents below.
I’ll be back later with more from the conference.
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Julie McCoy
Julie McCoy is the associate editor for the residency market at HCPro, Inc.
Julie has written 192 posts.
