Elisa Zenni

Teaching Community Pediatrics to Pediatric Residents: Strategic Approaches and Successful Models for Education in Community Health and Child Advocacy

To improve child health at a community level, pediatricians require knowledge and skills that have not been traditionally included in residency training. Recent policy statements from the American Academy of Pediatrics and requirements from Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education Residency Review committees emphasizing the importance of community pediatrics training have provided additional incentive for pediatric residency programs to actively explore methods of teaching the principles and promoting the practice of community pediatrics to resident trainees. With a growing number of diverse educational models in various stages of practice or development, common themes and approaches to promote successful teaching of community health and child advocacy can be described. This article defines strategies for 2 critical elements of community pediatrics training, engaging residents and building strong community partnerships, then highlights a number of educational models that illustrate key curricular components and methods. Published results from evaluations of some programs suggest that community pediatrics training of this caliber will cultivate a cadre of pediatricians (academic and community based, generalists and subspecialists, researchers and practitioners) who understand child health in the context of community and have the leadership and collaborative skills to improve the health of children in their communities.

Evaluating the Performance of Medical Educators: A Novel Analysis Tool to Demonstrate the Quality and Impact of Educational Activities

Purpose Traditional promotion standards rely heavily on quantification of research grants and publications in the curriculum vitae. The promotion and retention of educators is challenged by the lack of accepted standards to evaluate the depth, breadth, quality, and impact of educational activities. The authors sought to develop a practical analysis tool for the evaluation of educator portfolios (EPs), based on measurable outcomes that allow reproducible analysis of the quality and impact of educational activities. Method The authors, 10 veteran educators and an external expert evaluator, used a scholarly, iterative consensus-building process to develop the tool and test it using real EPs from educational scholars who followed an EP template. They revised the template in parallel with the analysis tool to ensure that EP data enabled valid and reliable evaluation. The authors created the EP template and analysis tool for scholar and program evaluation in the Educational Scholars Program, a three-year national certification program of the Academic Pediatric Association. Results The analysis tool combines 18 quantitative and 25 qualitative items, with specifications, for objective evaluation of educational activities and scholarship. Conclusions The authors offer this comprehensive, yet practical tool as a method to enhance opportunities for faculty promotions and advancement, based on well-defined and documented educational outcome measures. It is relevant for clinical educators across disciplines and across institutions. Future studies will test the interrater reliability of the tool, using data from EPs written using the revised template.

A Model to Begin to Use Clinical Outcomes in Medical Education

The latest phase of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) Outcome Project challenges graduate medical education (GME) programs to select meaningful clinical quality indicators by which to measure trainee performance and progress, as well as to assess and improve educational effectiveness of programs. The authors describe efforts to measure educational quality, incorporating measurable patient-care outcomes to guide improvement. University of Florida College of Medicine-Jacksonville education leaders developed a tiered framework for selecting clinical indicators whose outcomes would illustrate integration of the ACGME competencies and their assessment with learning and clinical care. In order of preference, indicators selected should align with a specialtys (1) national benchmarked consensus standards, (2) national specialty society standards, (3) standards of local, institutional, or regional quality initiatives, or (4) top-priority diagnostic and/or therapeutic categories for the specialty, based on areas of high frequency, impact, or cost. All programs successfully applied the tiered process to clinical indicator selection and then identified data sources to track clinical outcomes. Using clinical outcomes in resident evaluation assesses the residents performance as reflective of his or her participation in the health care delivery team. Programmatic improvements are driven by clinical outcomes that are shown to be below benchmark across the residents. Selecting appropriate clinical indicators-representative of quality of care and of graduate medical education-is the first step toward tracking educational outcomes using clinical data as the basis for evaluation and improvement. This effort is an important aspect of orienting trainees to using data for monitoring and improving care processes and outcomes throughout their careers.

Strategies to Design an Effective Mentoring Program

From the Penn State College of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Penn State Children’s Hospital, Hershey, PA (M.G.); the Department of Pediatrics, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Children’s Hospital of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA (S.L.); the Department of Pediatrics, University of Florida College of Medicine – Jacksonville, Jacksonville, FL (E.Z.); and the Department of Pediatrics, University of Vermont College of Medicine and Vermont Children’s Hospital at Fletcher Allen Health Care, Burlington, VT (L.F.)

Peer review: a tool to enhance clinical teaching

Background:  The system used by academic health centres to evaluate teaching must be valued by the large number of faculty staff that teach in clinical settings. Peer review can be used to evaluate and enhance clinical teaching. The objective of this study was to determine the perceptions of clinical faculty about the effects of participating in peer review.

Graduate Medical Education Leadership Development Curriculum for Program Directors

OBJECTIVE Program director (PD) orientation to roles and responsibilities takes on many forms and processes. This article describes one institutions innovative arm of faculty development directed specifically toward PDs and associate PDs to provide institutional resources and information for those in graduate medical education leadership roles. METHODS The designated institutional official created a separate faculty development curriculum for leadership development of PDs and associate PDs, modeled on the Association of American Medical Colleges-GRA (Group on Resident Affairs) graduate medical education leadership development course for designated institutional officials. It consists of monthly 90-minute sessions at the end of a working day, for new and experienced PDs alike, with mentoring provided by experienced PDs. We describe 2 iterations of the curriculum. To provide ongoing support a longitudinal curriculum of special topics has followed in the interval between core curriculum offerings. RESULTS Communication between PDs across disciplines has improved. The broad, inclusive nature allowed for experienced PDs to take advantage of the learning opportunity while providing exchange and mentorship through sharing of lessons learned. The participants rated the course highly and education process and outcome measures for the programs have been positive, including increased accreditation cycle lengths. CONCLUSION It is important and valuable to provide PDs and associate PDs with administrative leadership development and resources, separate from general faculty development, to meet their role-specific needs for orientation and development and to better equip them to meet graduate medical education leadership challenges. This endeavor provides a foundational platform for designated institutional official and PD interactions to work on program building and improvement.