Effects of an Academic Half Day in a Residency Program on Perceived Educational Value, Resident Satisfaction and Wellness.

BACKGROUND: The academic half day (AHD) has emerged in recent years as an alternative to the traditional noon conference model of didactic teaching in graduate medical education. However, the effects of this change on learners are not fully understood. This study aimed to assess the effects of the AHD on attendance, satisfaction, perceived value and wellness of resident physicians. METHODS: A survey aimed to assess housestaff satisfaction, perceived value and relevance to medical literature of the core educational curriculum was developed and validated. This, along with a wellness assessment survey, was distributed to residents electronically prior to the implementation of the AHD and again at the end of the academic year. Attendance was tracked for all conferences. RESULTS: The survey was administered to residents before and after implementation of the AHD (response rates were 100% and 83%, respectively at these time points [n = 95]). Implementation of the AHD lead to a significant increase in average time spent in the core conference series per week (29.7 versus 64.8 minutes). It additionally led to a statistically significant improvement of resident satisfaction with the core curriculum, perceived value of the core conference series, understanding of medical literature and promotion of reading outside of work. CONCLUSIONS: The AHD significantly improved resident time in conference, resident satisfaction and perceived educational value of the core conference series compared to a noon conference model. While challenges will exist with any educational conference model, the AHD appears to be a highly attractive approach to medical resident education.

The Power of Collaboration: Experiences From the Educational Innovations Project and Implications for the Next Accreditation System.

BACKGROUND: The Internal Medicine Educational Innovations Project (EIP) is a 10-year pilot project for innovating in accreditation, which involves annual reporting of information and less-restrictive requirements for a group of high-performing programs. The EIP program directors' experiences offer insight into the benefits and challenges of innovative approaches to accreditation as the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education transitions to the Next Accreditation System. OBJECTIVE: We assessed participating program directors' perceptions of the EIP at the midpoint of the project's 10-year life span. METHODS: We conducted telephone interviews with 15 of 18 current EIP programs (83% response rate) using a 19-item, open-ended, structured survey. Emerging themes were identified with content analysis. RESULTS: Respondents identified a number of the benefits from the EIP, most prominent among them, collaboration between programs (87%, 13 of 15) and culture change around quality improvement (47%, 7 of 15). The greatest benefit for residents was training in quality improvement methods (53%, 8 of 15), enhancing those residents' ability to become change agents in their future careers. Although the requirement for annual data reporting was identified by 60% (9 of 15) of program directors as the biggest challenge, respondents also considered it an important element for achieving progress on innovations. Program directors unanimously reported their ability to sustain innovation projects beyond the 10-year participation in EIP. CONCLUSIONS: The work of EIP was not viewed as "more work," but as "different work," which created a new mindset of continuous quality improvement in residency training. Lessons learned offer insight into the value of collaboration and opportunities to use accreditation to foster innovation.