Question
Dr. Macario, I was very impressed by Stanford’s program. The residents all seem to be very happy, but they did mention didactics as an area that is being worked on. Is there anything being done to address this situation? Thanks for the insight!
Answer
Another good and timely question! This past year the education committee composed of residents and faculty has looked at revamping the didactic program, in particular the lecture series given in the afternoon. Review of the evaluations by the housestaff revealed that the talks themselves received high marks, but the committee felt it important to add an active learning session, sometimes referred to as experiential learning. This might include PBLDs, or case conference, or review of board type questions. This is in addition to the monthly journal club.
As a result, as of July 2009, on Mondays the CA1s will have an active learning session from 4-440pm, followed by the faculty presentation from 450pm-530pm. Similarly, on Tuesdays for the CA2s and on Wednesdays for CA3s the active learning session (4-440pm) will be followed by the faculty presentation (450pm-530pm.
A summary of the daily lecture offerings:
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As you can see from the weekly schedule, many of the 1500 plus lectures/year are while the resident is on a subspecialty rotation, and that didactic content supplements the core lecture series in the afternoon and the Grand Rounds Monday morning. Since many of the residents that come here for training want to have a career in academics and teaching, one of our goals is to have even more resident to resident teaching so for example we ask the Chief Residents to run PBLDs for the CA1 which are quite well received!