DGIM Generally Speaking

Education Spotlight: Clinical Faculty Teaching Retreat

For the last 17 years, the Department of Medicine has hosted a Clinical Faculty Teaching Retreat each spring. This year’s retreat, “Millennium Learners: Crafting Teaching Moments for a Light Speed World” focused on creating short “chalk talks” for millennial learners. The event attracted over 70 clinical teaching faculty, predominantly from the DGIM. Faculty who teach on the Bigelow and precept in ambulatory clinics attended.

This yearly event is planned by the MGH Residency program and the Annual Retreat Planning Committee. Specifically, this year’s event was created and designed by the DGIM’s Core Educator Service. Each year the committee chooses an educational topic for faculty development. Prior years have included retreats on Feedback, Milestones, Teaching the Physical Exam, Managing Patients with Addiction, Unconscious Bias, and Patient Communication.

In the opening remarks, Dr. Katrina Armstrong kicked off the retreat with a poem about teachers and parents. Dr. Jay Vyas, the Residency Program Director, provided an overview of the upcoming changes within the residency program.

The invited Keynote speakers were Provost Vincent Manno and Professor Yevgeniya Zastavker from Olin College of Engineering. Their address, titled “Thinking Outside the Box, Re-Engineering Education”, highlighted the radical changes made by Olin College to engineering education. Olin was founded on the idea of revolutionizing engineering education by creating a learner focused environment that bridges the gap between education and the real world. Professor Zastavker illustrated her mechanical engineering course on ramps, which teaches students by having them design a stage for two women who dance in wheelchairs. Her course also touches on the meaning of the word handicap, helping students see the connection between their field and humanity. Despite the obvious differences between medical education and engineering, the Olin speakers inspired the clinical teaching faculty to think differently about their teaching and how to best craft it to the learner.

Additionally, Dr. Alberto Puig, Director of the Core Educator Service, gave a brief talk about millennials and their learning styles. Having helped design Harvard’s newest Pathway for undergraduate medical education, he was able to demonstrate millennials enjoy learning more from videos and brief teaching moments. Lectures are out!

Two interactive workshops followed the didactics. Six master educators in the DOM were invited to give 10 minute “chalk talks” to small groups. We were privileged to have Drs. Nesli Basgoz from ID, Josalyn Cho from Pulmonary, Douglas Drachman from Cardiology, Andrew Lundquist from Renal, Joshua Metlay from the DGIM, and John Stone from Rheumatology as the master educators. With core educators as facilitators, the small groups discussed these “chalk talks” and identified the elements that made them successful. In the final workshop, attendees worked in small groups to craft their own “chalk talks” based on two clinical cases. They had the opportunity to present their talks in small groups and get immediate feedback. Dr. Sherry Haddock volunteered to present her brief teaching moment on lipids to the entire room with great applause. Dr. Kathleen Finn, Inpatient Associate Program Director, who hosted this event, provided the closing remarks. The retreat was well received and there has been ongoing discussion on how to best support clinical teaching faculty to improve their teaching. 

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Many thanks go out to the Core Educators who assisted with the planning of the retreat:

Cindy Cooper, Kathleen Finn, Andrew Fenves, Jeffrey Greenwald, Steven Knuesel, Farrin Manian, Amulya Nagarur, Kris Olson, Molly Paras, Alberto Puig, Douglas Wright, Joshua Ziperstein. 

Read more articles from the Summer 2017 edition of Generally Speaking