Pediatric residents experience ethical dilemmas and moral distress during training. Few studies have identified meaningful methods in reducing moral distress in pediatric trainees. The authors aimed to determine how residents perceive ethics case discussions, whether such a program affects trainee ethics knowledge and perceived moral distress, and if residents’ perceived moral distress changes before, during, and after a discussion series. Participants included pediatric residents in a single residency program. Five separate 1-hour sessions were presented over a 5-month period. Each session consisted of a case presentation by a resident developed under the guidance of an ethicist. Multidisciplinary services and content experts were present during sessions. Baseline, postsession, and final surveys were distributed to resident attendees. Open-ended responses were recorded. When comparing baseline and final responses, the only significance was increased preparedness to navigate ethical decisions (p = 0.004). A 10.2% decline was observed in perceived moral distress. An increase in ethics knowledge was observed. Residents favored case-based, multidisciplinary discussions. Residents desire more sessions, time for small-group discussions, and legal insight. Satisfaction was high with 90.7% of respondents feeling better prepared to address ethical concerns. Pediatric trainees desire case-based ethics training that incorporates small-group discussions and insight from multidisciplinary topic experts.

Graduate career development has grown over recent years with increasing interest in public scholarship and career diversity. In interviews with 41 public humanities leaders, participants agreed that public humanities introduces students to various career opportunities through community-engaged work and allows them to develop skills needed for those careers, such as event planning and fundraising. Some participants also noted that career diversity is becoming an important area of public humanities leadership roles. However, participants shared that faculty have not been formally prepared for their public humanities roles, and, in turn, faculty have not been prepared to teach graduate students for public humanities or career diversity. How do faculty prepare students for opportunities when they do not feel prepared for those same opportunities? This piece offers answers to that question.

This paper describes the implementation of curricula for Liberia's first-ever psychiatry training programme in 2019 and the actions of the only two Liberian psychiatrists in the country at the time in developing and executing a first-year postgraduate psychiatry training programme (i.e. residency) with support from international collaborators. It explores cultural differences in training models among collaborators and strategies to synergise them best. It highlights the assessment of trainees’ (residents’) basic knowledge on entry into the programme and how it guided immediate and short-term priority teaching objectives, including integrated training in neuroscience and neurology. The paper describes the strengths and challenges of this approach as well as opportunities for continued growth.

Clinicians who are interested in becoming principal investigators struggle to find and complete training that adequately prepares them to conduct safe, well-designed clinical and translational research. Degree programs covering these skills require a significant time investment, while online trainings lack engagement and may not be specific to local research contexts. Staff at Tufts Clinical and Translational Science Institute sought to fill the gap in junior investigator training by designing an eight-module, noncredit certificate program to teach aspiring clinician-investigators about good clinical practice, clinical research processes, and federal and local regulatory requirements. The first iteration of this program was evaluated using pre- and posttest questionnaires and by gathering clinician learner feedback in a focus group. Based on the pre- and posttest questionnaires, learners experienced an increase in self-efficacy and confidence related to clinical research competencies. Feedback from learners also highlighted important program strengths, including an engaging program format, a manageable time commitment, and an emphasis on identifying crucial research resources. This article describes one approach to creating a meaningful and efficient clinical trial training program for clinicians.

This report describes a pilot project which involved undergraduate medical students’ clinical competence in psychiatry assessed through objective structured clinical examinations for the first time in Zimbabwe. The pilot describes how gaps in medical education can be addressed by collaborative partnerships that allow sharing of knowledge by local institutions and international experts.

This article is a summary of perspectives on training curricula from child and adolescent psychiatry trainees globally. We aimed to identify the relative strengths, weaknesses and gaps in learning needs from a trainee's perspective. The 20 early-career child psychiatrists who contributed are from 16 countries and represent all the five continents. We could identify some global challenges as well as local/regional challenges that need to be addressed to develop competent child psychiatrists.

Introduction: There is increasing evidence to support the integration of simulation into medical training; however, no national emergency medicine (EM) simulation curriculum currently exists. Using Delphi methodology, we aimed to identify and establish content validity evidence for EM curricular content best suited for simulation-based training to inform national postgraduate EM training. Methods: A national panel of experts in EM simulation-related education iteratively rated potential curricular topics, on a 4-point scale, to determine those best suited for simulation-based training. After each round, responses were analyzed and topics scoring <2/4 were removed. Remaining topics were resent to the panel for further ratings until consensus was achieved, defined as Cronbach α ≥ 0.95. At conclusion of the Delphi process, topics that were rated ≥3.5/4 were considered core curricular topics, while those rated 3.0-3.5 were considered extended curricular topics. Results: Forty-four experts from 13 Canadian centres participated. Two hundred and eighty potential curricular topics, in 29 domains, were generated from a systematic review of the literature, analysis of relevant educational documents and a survey of Delphi panelists. Three rounds of Delphi surveys were completed before consensus was achieved, with response rates ranging from 93-100%. Twenty-eight topics, in 8 domains, reached consensus as core curricular topics. An additional 35 topics, in 14 domains, reached consensus as extended curricular topics. Conclusion: Delphi methodology allowed for achievement of expert consensus and content validation of EM curricular content best suited for simulation-based training. These results provide a foundation for improved integration of simulation into postgraduate EM training and can be used to inform a national simulation curriculum to supplement clinical training and optimize learning.

Introduction/Innovation Concept: The boom in online educational resources for medical education over the past decade has changed how physicians learn and keep up to date with new literature. While nearly all emergency medicine residents use online resources, few of these resources were designed to target knowledge gaps. Novel methods are required to identify learning needs to allow the targeted development of learner-centered curricula. Methods: A multidisciplinary team attempted to determine the feasibility of conducting a Massive Online Needs Assessment (MONA) to assess the perceived and unperceived educational needs in thrombosis and bleeding. An open, online survey was launched via Google Forms and disseminated using the online educational resource CanadiEM.org and social media platforms Twitter and Facebook with the goal of reaching participants of the Free Open Access Medical education (FOAM) community. Curriculum, Tool, or Material: The survey was designed to identify knowledge gaps and contained demographic, free text, and multiple choice questions. It took individuals approximately 30 minutes to complete and was incentivized with entry into a draw for one of four $250 Amazon Gift cards. Feasibility was defined a priori as 150 responses from at least 4 specialties in 4 or more countries. This sample was deemed the minimum number required to identify knowledge gaps (defined as <50% correct answers). The survey was open from September 20 to December 10, 2016. We received 198 complete responses from 20 countries. Respondents included staff physicians (n=109), residents (n=46), medical students (n=29), nurses (n=8), paramedics (n=4), a pharmacist (n=1) and a physician assistant (n=1). The survey entry page hosted on CanadiEM.org received page views from 866 unique IP addresses. As such, a conservative approximation of the completion rate per unique viewer was 22% (198/866). Conclusion: It is feasible to use a MONA to collect data on the perceived and unperceived needs of an online community. Such needs assessments could be used to make online resources more learner-centered.

Introduction/Innovation Concept: Medical simulation is becoming increasingly useful for healthcare education. Simulation-based crisis resource management (CRM) has been shown to produce improvements in skill acquisition, communication and team behaviors. Simulation has become a key component of most Family Practice (FP) residency programs and many programs are moving towards developing formal simulation curriculums. The Coastal FP Residency is a relatively new and unique program with a large emphasis on rural medicine. Graduates have gone on to practice in remote areas with less access to supports for critically ill patients. Therefore, an effective simulation curriculum, focused on Emergency Medicine, is of great importance to this program. Methods: To develop our curriculum, Kern’s framework for medical education was selected given its prior success in similar endeavors. The first step of this approach involves a needs assessment, which we accomplished in the form of an online survey. The questionnaire included pre-defined topics pertaining to the training needs of FP Residents destined for Rural Practice with respect to technical skills, CRM skills, specific medical conditions and categories of medical conditions. Classification of answers included multiple choice, 5-point Likert scales as well as an option for free-text answers. The survey was distributed to pre-identified participants including stakeholders/educators within the Coastal FP residency program as well as simulation education leads for FP residencies throughout British Columbia (BC). Current residents, as well as program graduates were also asked to complete the survey. Curriculum, Tool, or Material: The results of this survey were used to develop formal goals and objectives which were in turn used to write or adapt 24 cases for the curriculum. Cases from categories (e.g. Pediatrics) rated as “Extremely Important” on the Likert scale were included proportionally more in the curriculum. The cases were also designed to assess/practice a higher proportion of CRM elements considered important and to address commonly identified difficulties in resuscitation. Cases were developed, where possible, using local or national guidelines and are currently in the stage of peer review (by a minimum of two peers). Conclusion: The curriculum will be implemented in July 2017 and we will transition towards the evaluation phase. Our goal is to develop and distribute formalized needs assessments to rural FP residencies across BC so that they may develop dynamic, formal curriculums of their own.