Resident Involvement at National Meetings

[gracie1234]

I was recently asked for suggestions about how to increase resident involvement at pathology national meetings. Does anyone have any thoughts as to what would make residents more interested/likely to participate in meetings such as USCAP?

Do you think topics for housestaff specialty conferences or some sort of resident symposium as a forum for discussion or networking opportunities might help?

Curious to hear your thoughts.

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[2121115]

I was recently asked for suggestions about how to increase resident involvement at pathology national meetings. Does anyone have any thoughts as to what would make residents more interested/likely to participate in meetings such as USCAP?

Do you think topics for housestaff specialty conferences or some sort of resident symposium as a forum for discussion or networking opportunities might help?

Curious to hear your thoughts.

1. Have their departments pay for them to go (airfare, hotel, food, parking, taxi, etc).

2. Make more social events in the evenings rather than academic events.

 

[KeratinPearls]

1. Have their departments pay for them to go (airfare, hotel, food, parking, taxi, etc).

2. Make more social events in the evenings rather than academic events.

Agree with #1.

 

[KCShaw]

And have ABPath make it clear that involvement at national meetings doesn't count as "time away from the program" or eat into vacation time.

Money and time. Two things at a particular premium in residency. It's generally not that residents don't want to get involved, they simply have to make a lot of sacrifices..sometimes too many to be worth it...to get involved or stay involved.

 

[lipomas]

When I was a resident it was almost all about cost. And whether they accepted my poster lead to whether cost would be an issue or not, as did what year it was since in fourth year I wanted to use education money for boards study.

I know some organizations are thinking about accepting posters in an "online only" format which still allows you to have your poster "accepted." But I suspect that many programs wouldn't pay your way to go to a conference where your poster was only available online.

The other offerings that conferences might offer to tempt residents all are much much less important than the financial and time commitment to simply going there. Reduced (or even waived) attendance fees are very helpful. I could give a crap about social events. I usually hate them because I don't care about them. I go to conferences to get CME in as efficient a way as possible. I don't want them wasting 3 hours of potential time (and thus forcing me to stay another day) on wine and cheese or meet and greets. I guess those are kind of important at major meetings, and a lot of people do like them. But for me I did not care.

 

[yaah]

Seconded. To me it was all about cost and timing as a resident. Beyond residency, it's all about where the conference is (i.e. not too far away and not too hard to get there, I could care less about exciting locations) and cost and the quality of the education.

 

[KCShaw]

Yeah.. -now- it's only a little different. Money is less of an issue, but there's still the problem of getting time off from real work & family, with the added issue of MOC with CME and now the mystical SAM's. But that's another topic.

In residency, keeping the services covered was a constant battle -without- having to worry about everyone trying to go to some conference at the same time.