Background: Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) improves physicians’ clinical decision-making through refining the skills of asking a clinical question, searching for and appraising the literature and then properly applying it to patient care. While EBM has been implemented as an essential module across medical schools worldwide, most graduates are not well versed in the fundamentals of effectively [...]

Background: Despite the current focus on developing handoff training curricula to improve patient safety, rigorous assessments of handoffs remain scarce. Immersive simulations allow for the evaluation of communication skills, but few specifically account for common external threats to effective handoff performance. Our aim was to investigate the effects of these interruptions in an educational handoff [...]

Background: Health care policy is currently under scrutiny due to health care reform, yet in our experience the majority of house staff have insufficient opportunity to learn about the environment they will soon be practicing medicine in. The ACGME attempts to address this through the Systems-based practice competency, but further guidance is lacking. Purpose: Our [...]

Background: How to combat the corrosive effects of burnout during residency training remains a persistent question, but a supportive working environment has shown to be a protective factor.  Purpose: The Golden Ticket Project (GTP) is a novel wellness pilot program designed to encourage peer recognition within a pediatric residency program. Description: METHODS: Through an electronic [...]

Engaging Residents in QI, the SMART way. Authors: Gabriella Sherman, MD and Luis Dimen, MD Background: Residency programs across the country have implemented various quality improvement (QI) lecture series in an effort to engage residents in QI projects.  Despite the many resources available to residents, they have limited time to utilize the tools to complete [...]