Help from my co-residents

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Vaporized

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I need some help and was hoping my fellow residents out there could chime in. I am a chief resident next year and would like to try and address our lecture schedule. Right now it is not very focused, different lectures at different times, morning/evening, etc. Our surgical colleagues have a dedicated block for didactics one morning per week. I am asking you, what does your program do? Do you have one four hour block one morning each week? Is is some morning lectures and some afternoon presentations? If you could let me know so I could have some ideas what others are doing it would be grateful.

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I am not a resident so, if that's important, please just ignore my post. You have touched one of my sore spots.

If you really want to make a difference, move away from the "lecture" system. This is the 21st century; we are surrounded by information. All we need is time and motivation to study (ideally at the end of every day). I can remember very few things I learned first from a lecture during residency; I mostly remember how much most of them sucked (at least for what I was expecting). At the beginning of the day, I was royally unhappy to have my OR set up by 6 am. At the end of the day, I was wondering why I was wasting time listening to a presentation I could have read in 1/3 of the time, and from a much better book.

One should not aim to be taught something that one can learn on one's own. Residents are adult learners with supposedly high IQs. There shouldn't be many theoretical lectures or presentations in graduate medical education; there should be many case discussions, and tests (otherwise people won't know how little they know). Practical approach to all kinds of situations, not pretentious Powerpoint presentations that nobody will remember after a few weeks. For anesthesia, that means mock orals, (mock) simulations, learning from senior anesthesiologists' personal experience on various subjects etc. Practical stuff that one can apply in the OR.

If anesthesia is like flying a plane, we need more hours in a (virtual) simulator, not in a conference room.
 
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Not sure if it still happens, but at my residency, during my ca-3 year, we begun chapter discussions out of Stoelting's "Anesthesia and Co-Existing Diseases." A resident would get the chapter, do a brief discussion of the salient points, and then an attending would facilitate a case discussion. It could be a preop of a patient with the problem, an intraop mishap, post-op care in the unit, etc. This would happen q2 weeks in the morning before the ORs started. Total time about 45 mins to one hour.

It seemed pretty popular at the time. But you'll need Attendings who are actually interested. The best thing about it is it brought the medicine back into our discussions.
 
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1hr lectures at the end of our day most days not Friday plus grand rounds one morning.
 
Where I trained we had a lecture day that was during the day. I believe from 0830-10 CA3 lecture 1030-1300 CA2 and 1330- 1500 CA3 with the help of the CRNA's we were relieved from the OR's. Probably one of the best moves they made to the didactic schedule. They also made subspecialty lectures during the mornings. I never felt overburdened with lecture. Back when I was chief.......
 
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Lectures are terrible. Complete waste of time. I used to have my Co residents sign the sheet for me. I had better things to do than listen to somebody pretty much read a book chapter. M&m and mock orals were worth it.

I'm not Resident anymore. But we used to have grand rounds every like Tuesday or Wednesday morning with late or start. And I believe lectures every Monday at 4, followed at 5 by sim or mock orals.
 
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Lectures are a complete and utter waste of time. They are at in opportune times. Reading on your own time is KEY. Discussions with your attendings are pivotal. At this stage of the game that is not what residents need, morebusy work. However, some of those audio digest recordings are frickin gems. with a capital G.
 
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