Pursuing Scholarship: Creating Effective Conference Submissions.

Medical educators are expected to disseminate peer-reviewed scholarly work for academic promotion and tenure. However, developing submissions for presentations at national meetings can be confusing and sometimes overwhelming. Awareness and use of some best practices can demystify the process and maximize opportunities for acceptance for a variety of potential submission categories. This article outlines logistical steps and best practices for each stage of the conference submission process that faculty should consider when preparing submissions. These include topic choice, team composition, consideration of different submission types, and strategies for effectively engaging participants.

Faculty Competencies: An Exploration of Feasibility and Acceptance.

Introduction: A uniform method of iterative professional development for medical educators does not exist in the United States graduate medical education system. The Society of Teachers of Family Medicine Faculty Competencies Special Project Team, a subgroup of the Faculty Development Collaborative, sought to create a competency-based assessment framework for medical educators. This paper describes the feasibility and acceptance of a draft competencies resource using a survey. Methods: A mixed-methods, ten-question survey to assess the feasibility and acceptance of the draft competencies resource was created and distributed to medical educators through educational contacts from October 2019 to November 2019. Results: Eighty-six surveys were completed. Of the 86 respondents, 48 (55%) answered all the survey questions. Thematic analysis for acceptance of the draft yielded three groups, the accepting, neutral, and nonacceptance groups. Each group had distinct characteristics regarding the likelihood of accepting and using the draft competencies. Conclusions: The draft competencies are thought to be feasible, with overall acceptance in the current form. Further research will guide revisions of the competency resource before final distribution.

Interdisciplinary prenatal group visits as a significant learning experience.

AIM: Group visits offer documented benefit to patients and clinicians. They also provide an excellent venue to teach residents interdisciplinary care and group facilitation skills. INTERVENTION: Third-year residents received experiential training to provide prenatal care through group visits rather than one-on-one visits. STUDY METHOD: A descriptive study is used to illustrate the effectiveness of various facets of resident skill acquisition and patient-centered prenatal care. Evaluation methods included feedback from patients, team members, learner self-reflection, and observation by a behavioral health clinician. SUMMARY: Residents collaboratively provide prenatal care in a group model during a 6-month period. Interdisciplinary team members explicitly teach and model biopsychosocial whole-person care and effective communication. This inventive experience has increased resident competency-based skills in facilitation and effective team collaboration as measured through observation. These skills are directly applicable in future primary care medical home practice. Using a group visit model benefits patients and clinicians, and promotes enriching and effective resident education. Our model can easily be implemented in other programs.