Getting up to Speed: A Resident-Led Inpatient Curriculum for New Internal Medicine Interns

Abstract

Introduction:The transition from medical school to internship is an important milestone in medical training and often is a challenge for trainees. This resident-designed and -led inpatient curriculum for internal medicine interns was created to address common clinical scenarios and how best to manage them. Methods: During the Intern Summer Curriculum, interns participated in weekly small-group sessions facilitated by senior residents. Each case-based session was structured around a clinical topic. Working in pairs with an expert faculty member as a reviewer, volunteer junior and senior residents reviewed and edited each session. During the 2 years we conducted surveys of learners and instructors in the curriculum, there were 200 intern learners and 68 resident instructors. Results: The Intern Summer Curriculum was evaluated highly by all participants. Of the intern and resident survey responses, 92% (N = 77) of interns felt that the curriculum should be continued for future interns, and 100% (N = 50) of residents felt that residents should continue to teach in this program. Interns felt that the curricular content helped them better understand topics they commonly encountered and improved their ability to perform day-to-day tasks. Resident instructors felt that teaching in this program was a valuable learning experience and helped strengthen teaching skills. Discussion: This resident-run inpatient curriculum for internal medicine interns can serve as a valuable learning experience for the intern learners, as well as for the resident instructors, and aid in bringing all interns up to speed at the beginning of intern year.

An Interactive Mock Paging Curriculum to Prepare New Internal Medicine Interns for Inpatient Wards

“…Our intervention focuses on improving medicine interns’ comfort, practical knowledge, and skills in handling acute scenarios involving nurse pages at the beginning of intern year. While there is another curriculum 20 focusing on improving interns’ management of common internal medicine issues, efficiency, and communication skills, its sessions span more than the first 3 months of the academic year whereas interns may require some of these skills earlier. When providing feedback on our curriculum, several interns felt that these sessions should be offered during orientation if possible.…”

“… 16 – 19 One curriculum concentrates on improving interns’ management of common internal medicine skills, such as efficiency and team communication skills, but it does not explicitly focus on practical information to help interns manage acute paging scenarios. 20 Its sessions also span more than 3 months, yet interns may require some of these skills earlier in the year. Other workshops use high-fidelity mannequin simulation to train residents on acute scenarios in the critical care setting.…”

Strategies for effective intern orientation

“…For instance, educational initiatives can be centred on clinical topics, such as the care of patients with diabetes, that can be accomplished through a set of online learning modules 8 . Alternatively, learning during orientation can also be directed towards different clinical care settings, such as the emergency room or inpatient wards, 9 through a combination of lectures and small group discussion sessions. By facilitating instructional time that is customisable for the learner, this supports and encourages the transition from classroom‐based learning, a model typically found in undergraduate medical education, to one that is now self‐directed and intern driven.…”

An innovative approach to comprehensive communication skills training for residents: A resident-led communication curriculum

“…We did identify an internal medicine resident-led single session workshop on breaking bad news that successfully increased confidence in breaking bad news, 14 as well as resident-led curricula for non-communication topics. 30–34…”