Background:
Clinician‐educators are responsible for more information and sicker patients than in the past. Yet they face greater time pressures. Faculty development programs ought to teach clinician‐educators to handle these conflicting responsibilities while retaining excellence in medical education.
Purpose:
To improve the inpatient attending experience by teaching skills for leadership, time management, bedside teaching, and intrateam communication.
Description:
A committee of leaders from the divisions of hospital and general internal medicine devised the ward attending scholars program (WASP) curriculum after a literature review and needs assessment survey of all physicians who attend on the general medicine wards. The WASP curriculum consists of 5 components. (1) A half‐day seminar involves didactic presentations ranging from 15 to 45 minutes in duration. Content included setting expectations, time management, intrateam communication, conflict management, delivering feedback, and interfacing with key clinical services in our hospital. (2) Peer coaching sessions pair faculty who have demonstrated excellence in teaching with new or struggling ward attendings. In the month prior to their first attending experience of the year, faculty trainees observe preceptors during 1 postcall and 1 non‐postcall rounds. The curriculum committee created a checklist to act as a guide for key observable teaching and leadership techniques. The preceptor and trainee use this checklist as a tool for a debriefing session after the rounds. This process is repeated with the trainee as the attending and the preceptor as the observer. (3) Monthly debriefing sessions are led by an experienced clinician in hospital medicine. The goal of these sessions is to provide attending physicians on the wards an opportunity to share obstacles encountered during the month and techniques that they used to overcome them. (4) A handbook based on the content of the lectures in the half‐day seminar was created and distributed to faculty. It contains specific recommendations about strategies for setting expectations, time management, bedside teaching, and navigating key services in the hospital. It is posted on the Internet. (5) A bibliography was created as a supplement to the information presented in the seminar. Content includes seminal articles on bedside teaching, leading ward rounds, providing feedback, and communication. This bibliography is posted on the Internet. All phases of the program are evaluated. Participants are surveyed after the seminar and peer coaching sessions. Monthly debriefing sessions are recorded, transcribed, and evaluated for common themes requiring intervention.
Conclusions:
The WASP is a unique collaboration between hospitalists and general internists. It uses multiple tools to improve faculty performance and, potentially, the experience for faculty and trainees on the inpatient medical wards.
Disclosures:
J. S. Baru ‐ none; B. P. Lucas ‐ none; J. Smith ‐ none; B. Mba ‐ none; D. Woods ‐none; S. Rogers ‐ none; I. Paintsil ‐ none; L. Rohr ‐ none; S. Vargas ‐ none