Significance of didactics?

[msu2493]

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M4 here applying DR this fall and am trying to figure out what to look for in potential programs. How important are didactics in a resident's education? From the few lectures I've sat in on (albeit few) it seems that most residents are zoned out and not paying too much attention. My theory is that most of a rads resident's learning comes from independent studying/reading on their own time, so the didactics are more of a formality. Is this an accurate assumption?

 

[GoPelicans]

Wouldn't even care about this. If you ask any of the residents at literally any program they will say the lectures are great. In truth many of the lectures are so specialized that they aren't very helpful to the day to day life of a resident. Each month we have like ~5 lectures I actually find helpful for my job. The bulk of everyone's education comes from self study.

 

[guytakingboards]

M4 here applying DR this fall and am trying to figure out what to look for in potential programs. How important are didactics in a resident's education? From the few lectures I've sat in on (albeit few) it seems that most residents are zoned out and not paying too much attention. My theory is that most of a rads resident's learning comes from independent studying/reading on their own time, so the didactics are more of a formality. Is this an accurate assumption?

It's no different than medical school. There are good lecturers. There are bad lecturers. There's value to passively listening to lecture but you can't learn/absorb everything from it.

Considering it's gonna be an hour of your day and at some places up to 3 hours, I personally wouldn't write it off. Put another way, an hour of didactic lecture could be more valuable than a 7th or 8th hour at the workstation.

Self-learning basically all physics in the 4 months before the core exam sucked big time. I would have appreciated a focused walkthrough the necessary physics topics rather than the random PhD deriving physics equations garbage i got.

 

[Cognovi]

Didactics are your chance to get spoon fed information. I wouldn't blow it off altogether. I use didactics as a primer, getting a lay of the land and first-time exposure, that prepares me for self-directed learning and consolidation. For example, would you skip AIRP if you had the chance? No.

As an applicant, I would ask whether faculty (and senior residents who teach) are trying out more engaging teaching techniques (gamification, group exercises, the balance of hot seat case conference and lecture, audience response), whether lectures are recorded, whether attendance is enforced (you don't want this), whether lectures are tailored towards first- and second-year residents or if there are often uber-specialized research talks, what the volume of teaching conference is (5 hours a week is on the low end, 12 on the high end), and how many residents attend or watch lecture (to gauge how useful the residents find them, how conveniently scheduled they are, and how well protected the teaching time is compared to being on service reading scans),

 

[Pinocytosis]

As an applicant, I would ask whether faculty (and senior residents who teach) are trying out more engaging teaching techniques (gamification, group exercises, the balance of hot seat case conference and lecture, audience response), whether lectures are recorded, whether attendance is enforced (you don't want this), whether lectures are tailored towards first- and second-year residents or if there are often uber-specialized research talks, what the volume of teaching conference is (5 hours a week is on the low end, 12 on the high end), and how many residents attend or watch lecture (to gauge how useful the residents find them, how conveniently scheduled they are, and how well protected the teaching time is compared to being on service reading scans),

As an applicant this year, this was very helpful. Thank you.

 

[qwerty89]

Programs that have quality faculty led didactics will generally have good teaching at the workstation, which is the most important.

Things to avoid are mandatory AM conferences that start at 7am.

 

[2brads]

My program was probably 70% taking cases and 30% "other" with one at lunch and one at 4PM (10 hours per week). Attendance of at least 80% was mandatory unless on IR. I found didactics valuable for a few reasons. The first was that some topics like T-bone/neck anatomy, nucs and high end MRI were good to see as a first year, before anyone expected you to know anything so you at least knew what would eventually be expected. Also, knowing that a case conference was coming up spurred us to study more so we wouldn't look like *****s when we took a case. 4PM conference time is invaluable because it sets the expectation that the end of your workday is 4PM and no later. Our attendings knew this and always got us out on time. Noon was a good time because then your lunch is protected. 7AM conference would suck. Also, almost everyone in our program got along with each other and seeing everyone every day helped boost camaraderie. Often after 4PM conference we would go to a bar for happy hour or to someone's house for a BBQ, poker, etc.