PHM16: How to Design, Improve Educational Programs at Community Hospitals
Facilitators: Christopher Russo, MD, FAAP, Laura Hodo, MD, and Lauren Wilson, MD
This session discussed ways to design and improve education within community hospital settings. It was done via a didactic session, breakout groups, and an electronic assessment tool that can be used beyond the session. Facilitators included the workshop leaders and co-leaders along with current PHM fellows and educators from community and academic settings.
During the didactic session a general background of importance of education during times of increasing academic and community site affiliations was discussed. This included the strengths of community hospitals for learners such as “appropriate learner autonomy”, “exposure to different career paths”, and “transfer decision-making”.
Some of the challenges discussed in regards to developing an educational structure in community settings included:
- Logistics
- Making the case for education
- Legal framework (i.e. Affiliation agreements, Liability)
- Finances (i.e. GME funding)
- Paperwork burden (ex. Licensing, Credentialing)
- Learning Environment
- Complementing clinical work with materials
- Autonomy/Supervision balancing
- Developing Clinical teachers
The didactic session also reviewed the 6 steps for curriculum development: General Needs Assessment, Targeted Needs Assessment, Goals and Objectives, Educational Strategies, Implementation, and Evaluation/Feedback. Each of these was described in further detail with relevant examples.
Groups were broken out into small groups based on four learner types: Medical Students, Family Medicine Residents, Pediatric Residents, and PHM Fellows. Within each group a “Program Development Matrix” was distributed to assess the support from leadership and logistics within each setting. Each one of these was separated into subgroups such as credentialing, financial support, housing/travel, and preceptor recruitment.
A separate “Curriculum Development Matrix” was utilized during breakout groups that focused on curriculum development. This matrix was broken into 3 areas: Educational Strategies, Implementation, and Evaluation/Feedback. These were broken down into subgroups such as content, identifying resources, and remediation planning. The group was asked to determine short and long term goals with action steps for both of these matrix subgroups.
Overall the session presented a structured way of assessing the educational environment for learners in community settings. It gave tangible tools to develop a needs assessment and planning to achieve the defined goals that can be readily used by sites who wish to develop or improve their current educational framework.
Dr. Francisco Alvarez, MD, FAAP, is a pediatric hospitalist and director of the Children’s National Health System Community Hospital Services in Washington, D.C.
