I have been involved in both community and medical student education through electives as a fourth year. I would like to continue that as a resident, but am trying to get a sense of when that is appropriate...is early in residency too soon to be doing brief lectures/group discussions in the community on a volunteer basis? How do I go about it (as in, independently or with permission of the program director)?
Lectures/Small Groups as a Resident
- Thread starter Psychczar
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As a patient I'm preparing to sign up to be a representative of the 'Mental Health Lived Experience' initiative in South Australia, which will mean speaking at specific forums and other community meetings. I don't see why a resident, even in the early stages of training, couldn't do something like you're describing.
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Depends on the context, but it's totally do-able. You won't be passing yourself off as an expert, but you'll be a doctor and can opine as such, particularly on issues of public health and the like.
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I'm not sure what content you have been/will be presenting, but in general this is the kind of community service and involvement I love to see my senior residents doing--and if you as an intern already have the network and skills to keep it going, assuming it doesn't conflict with work obligations, I'd say "go for it".
The content thus far has been depending on which setting, for example in low-income community centers it has been related to chronic stress management and things like deep breathing, incorporating physical movement into the day. In assisted living centers the content has been on bereavement and recognizing signs of depression. And with medical students the small groups are on again depression, managing anxiety, substance use in the physician population. I have done this either independently or in teams, but through an elective, so in some way I suppose it was "supervised." As a resident I would be doing this autonomously.
Not sure if anyone else feels like the change between medical student and physician is sort of sudden. so do I need to discuss with my PD or something? In the past the groups are in the evenings so it wouldn't conflict with work on a non-call day.
Not sure if anyone else feels like the change between medical student and physician is sort of sudden. so do I need to discuss with my PD or something? In the past the groups are in the evenings so it wouldn't conflict with work on a non-call day.
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It is a little jarring the first time you write a controlled substance script and don't need a cosignature, yes...
Just let your PD know. I certainly don't demand that residents divulge all details of what they do in their own time--but to the extent that you're "DR. Psychczar from the Local Hospital Program", it's good that we're aware of it. Plus again, as I said above, it's a great community outreach activity that they may want other residents to do with you. (If you're my resident I'm already thinking -- OOoh...Quality Improvement project! Poster! Resident journal report!!!
)
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As far as medical student teaching, start your first day in residency! I always made it a heavy focus of mine (Patients first, medical students second) and started giving weekly lectures during downtime. People will notice and help you get involved, or you can be even more proactive and talk to the M3 clerkship director or M2 psychiatry director. I've gotten to run 3hour MSE workshops, teach several M2 lectures to the whole class, run a M3 Shelf review every block, and co-run M2 TBLs (this is a great oppertunity if you did this in medical school and went to residency somewhere else, you might have more experience than the attending!). Many med schools also have shadowing programs for M1's and M2s that you can individually mentor. Lastly, there is an AAP meeting each year which fosters all aspects of medical/residency education.
Teaching really makes the day better, solidifies your knowledge, and can make a BIG difference for how those medical students view mental health issues (and how they prescribe Xanax!).
Teaching really makes the day better, solidifies your knowledge, and can make a BIG difference for how those medical students view mental health issues (and how they prescribe Xanax!).
I love teaching, but as a soon to be new intern, I honestly feel much more comfortable teaching medicine than psych at the moment due to the massive exposure of medicine at my school haha. But you can always get involved in other projects.
