Resident retreat ideas?

[marie337]

Help! I'm a co-chief resident trying to get our retreat organized for september. I need ideas for a team building/get to know each other exercise. I have money to spend within reason. Our retreat is being held at a local fitness club. I need to fill about 90 minutes or so with some fun but productive. Any ideas?

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[nancysinatra]

Help! I'm a co-chief resident trying to get our retreat organized for september. I need ideas for a team building/get to know each other exercise. I have money to spend within reason. Our retreat is being held at a local fitness club. I need to fill about 90 minutes or so with some fun but productive. Any ideas?

How about a good game of truth or dare? That's what I'm hoping my program will sponsor this year.

 

[notdeadyet]

ETOH and board games.

If budget is tight, ETOH >>> board games.

 

[billypilgrim37]

Every year we play an ice breaker called train wreck (Google it, easy to find). We probably do it for 45 min but we have 60+ residents who attend.

Also we break into teams of an intern, 2,3, and 4s and take a quiz about the attendings with fun facts. If you have colorful attendings and a lot of them it works well.

Have also had people write fun facts about themselves when they walk in, throw them all on a PowerPoint slide and do a quiz that way.

This stuff is corny but at least mildly amusing.

 

[OldPsychDoc]

Keep the ideas coming, guys. I intend to steal them all. 😀

One thing that we did when I was a resident <insert age-related joke here>, was some sort of community service project as a group. One year for example, we painted rooms at a homeless shelter.

I realize that this doesn't fit with the time frame Marie is looking for help with here, but something for you all to keep in mind for your future retreats.

 

[marie337]

Great ideas guys. Thanks. We usually play psychiatry jeopardy in the afternoon. We have an attending who organizes it every year. Our Second year class is really on the verge of being obnoxious and we're not very cohesive right now. It would probably be a good idea to just do something fun to get to know each other better. Keep the ideas coming!

 

[OldPsychDoc]

Great ideas guys. Thanks. We usually play psychiatry jeopardy in the afternoon. We have an attending who organizes it every year. Our Second year class is really on the verge of being obnoxious and we're not very cohesive right now. It would probably be a good idea to just do something fun to get to know each other better. Keep the ideas coming!

You should ask some of the OTs or Rec therapists associated with your hospital--they may have some good ideas. 😉

 

[Sophie]

Last year we did alcohol + board games (specifically, Taboo), like notdead suggested, and that was a lot of fun.

The year before we played Celebrity (plus alcohol), but in addition to actors, singers, etc, a lot of people added in attendings. It was pretty hilarious once we got down to the round of just gestures and were having to pantomime our attendings.

 

[Doctor Bagel]

I'd personally hold off on the alcohol emphasis because some people don't (can't) drink, making a drunken fest not the most inclusive or fun event for them. Not to say the event needs to be dry, but I don't think etoh should be a central feature either. We try to convince our patients to handle things without intoxicants, so maybe we can convince ourselves, too.

Otherwise, the things in our retreat that I enjoy include breaking up into small groups of mixed classes to get to know each other/process. We also do a skit, which is super fun, but you might not have enough time for that. I'd also vote against truth or dare because that could be pretty miserable.

I can see I would be the square of the retreat planning group.

 

[toothless rufus]

Strippers?

 

[nancysinatra]

I'd also vote against truth or dare because that could be pretty miserable.

I was joking.

Although truth or dare would be more fun than what happens at our retreats. Spending your day at one of these things is only marginally better than dictating 50 discharge summaries using our hospital's pre-Epic dictation system. The restreats last all day and the fare consists of coffee and dry croissants for breakfast, if we're lucky. The department may or may not spring for lunch. Alcohol would not be served in a million years. They don't even serve alcohol at our annual holiday festive event, an equally uninspired tradition.

We used to do skits, which were at least entertaining. But in my program, whenever something is working, it gets abolished. So now the skits are gone and at our last retreat we played a "team building" game where we were required to build a tower out of office supplies.

10 more months.

 

[OldPsychDoc]

Two residents from each class enter the arena for a fight to the death until only one remains. They get the fellowship of their choice, but have to take the remaining calls of everyone they killed.

(Yes...just watched the movie tonight...🙄)

 

[Doctor Bagel]

I was joking.

Although truth or dare would be more fun than what happens at our retreats. Spending your day at one of these things is only marginally better than dictating 50 discharge summaries using our hospital's pre-Epic dictation system. The restreats last all day and the fare consists of coffee and dry croissants for breakfast, if we're lucky. The department may or may not spring for lunch. Alcohol would not be served in a million years. They don't even serve alcohol at our annual holiday festive event, an equally uninspired tradition.

We used to do skits, which were at least entertaining. But in my program, whenever something is working, it gets abolished. So now the skits are gone and at our last retreat we played a "team building" game where we were required to build a tower out of office supplies.

10 more months.

Yeah, I kind of suspected that after I posted. Truth or Dare might tell you lots of things you really don't want to know about the people you work with. Luckily our retreat is the one time where we get good decent food because it's not supplied by our program.

I hated the idea of skits initially, but they're actually pretty awesome. Our retreat, fortunately, is 100% planned by residents, so it's one of the more functional aspects of our program. If only everything else were that way ...

 

[nitemagi]

I think one of the best retreats I attended involved watersports, bbq, and kickball. Many things depend on the size of your residency, time allotted, and $$.