The Use of a Social Media Based Curriculum for Newly Matched Interns Transitioning into Emergency Medicine Residency
Correspondence should be addressed to Joel C Park, MD at JPark2@riversidehealth.org
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21980/J8F92G
ABSTRACT:
Audience:
This is an online social media curriculum aimed at the incoming Emergency Department (ED) intern. This curriculum is designed to foster collaborative learning in preparation for the upcoming intern year.
Introduction:
Graduating medical students tend to have few clinical experiences at the end of their fourth year. For many students, their last ED rotation is six months or more before the start of their internship. In addition, the transition from being a medical student to an intern can be quite abrupt and jarring, with little time to adjust to the rigorous new clinical demands of internship. To ease this transition, the Slack channels provide an easy medium to share thoughts and ideas regarding clinical cases provided by the Emergency Medicine (EM) faculty.
After performing a PubMed, Google Scholar, and Medline search, we found that no interventions have been described utilizing social media for helping rising interns to transition from medical school to emergency medicine residency. Medical school curriculum varies widely, and medical students often struggle with this transition.1,2 Multiple authors have evaluated the use of pre-graduation or early internship boot camps as preparation for emergency medicine residencies, but to our knowledge, there is no existing curriculum that is designed specifically for the transition between medical school and internship.3,4,5 We designed a social media based curriculum that addressed several of the competencies targeted by these boot camp programs4 and based on Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) level 1 milestones in patient care.
This curriculum provides an interactive, case-based learning platform for incoming residents prior to the start of residency. Using Slack, learners can post responses in real-time that can be seen by the entire group of incoming interns. The incoming interns will be able to interact with other users, either in a public or private forum, and communicate with each other in a virtual classroom setting. The goal is to create an environment to facilitate collaborative learning and interaction between residents, residency leadership, and program faculty.
We created a total of ten cases, which were each posted with an associated intern-appropriate clinical question. We also posted an associated high-resolution image, such as an electrocardiogram (EKG) or a radiograph from a website such as LifeintheFastLane.com or ALiEM.com. Typically, 24 to 72 hours were given to allow sufficient time for the residents to contribute answers and ideas. Once the allotted time had ended, the EM faculty member provided the solution to the case with the appropriate supportive ‘Free Open Access Medical Education’ (FOAMed) resources.
Objectives:
This curriculum is designed to bridge this gap by fostering an environment in which incoming interns can communicate, collaborate, and practice clinical reasoning with each other and faculty prior to their arrival in residency. The goals and objectives were tailored to the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) level 1 milestones in patient care.
- Interpret basic ECGs
- Demonstrate ability to interpret basic radiographs
- Identify common visual diagnoses
- Identify common neurological emergencies on head imaging
- Recognize basic airway anatomy
- Demonstrate successful application of FOAMed resources to clinical cases
- Interpret common ultrasound images
- Describe common ED procedures
- Demonstrate fundamental knowledge of evidence-based medicine and biostatistics
Methods:
The educational strategies used in this curriculum included case-based learning, questions and answers, and links to online Free Open Access Medical Education (FOAMed) resources. Using Slack, an online collaborative social media application, we posted specific clinical-based cases in the “Cases” thread and then gave the new residents an opportunity to post their answers. We then posted a follow-up with the clinical outcome of the case and provided resources to encourage use of FOAMed, online libraries, textbooks, and other resources.
Topics:
Online, social media, cases, interaction, collaboration, Slack, interns, preparation, orientation.
