Summary List of Practicum Sessions

Date # of hours

Total = 160

Activity Faculty Preceptor Session #
2016 July 28,29 2 Morning Report Dr. Ben Kaasa 1
2016 July 16 1 Hematology Noon Rounds Dr. Pendergraast 2
2016 August 5,6 2.5 Morning Report – ECG testing Dr. Kaasa, Dr. Esho 3
2016 August 9 3 Bedside Teaching and Consult Review Dr. Esho 4
2016 August 9 4 Morning Report + Consult Review Dr. Kaasa 5
2016 August 12 1 Morning Report – Endocarditis Dr. Esho 6
2016 August 10 2 OMA TPA Debate Dr. Tannenbaum 7
2016 Nov 21 4 First Junior Attending experience Dr. Molla-Ghanbari 8
2016 Nov 22 1 Morning report hyperkalemia Dr. Molla-Ghanbari 9
2016 Nov 24,25 4 Junior Attending experience Dr. Molla-Ghanbari 10
2016 Nov 28,29 4 Junior Attending experience Dr. Leslie Adcock 11
2016 Dec 1/2 4 Junior Attending Experience Dr. Leslie Adcock 12
2016 Dec 5/6 4 Junior Attending Experience Dr. Leslie Adcock 13
2016 Dec 8/9 4 Junior Attending Experience Dr. Leslie Adcock 14
2017 Feb 15 2 A. Fib Lecture Dr. Erin Bearss 15
2017 March 2 4 INTAPT Workshop Dr. Abbas 16
2017 March 6 4 Junior Attending Dr. Kaasa 17
2017 March 7 4 Junior Attending Part 2 Dr. Kaasa 18
2017 March 7 4 Junior Attending: Bedside rounds and Procedure Learning Ben Kaasa 19.1
2017 March 8 4 Junior Attending: Case Review Ben Kaasa 19.2
2017 March 8 4 Junior Attending: Learning Styles Ben Kaasa 20
2017 March 16 3 Physician Assisted Death – Seminar Half-Day – Collaboration Milena Forte 21
2017 March 17 4 Junior Attending: Visual Learning Ben Kaasa 22
2017 March 9 4 Junior Attending and Morning Report Ben Kaasa 23
2017 March 9 4 Junior Attending: Feedback Ben Kaasa 24
2017 March 10 4 Junior Attending: Clinical Expert Ben Kaasa 25
2017 March 18 1.5 Dealing with “Problem Learner” Ben Kaasa 26
2017 March 19 2 Clinical Teaching Ben Kaasa 27
2017 June 1 1.5 Procedural Learning – Sebaceous cyst removal Mayura Loganathan 28
2018 March 23 1 Alvoelar Gas Equation Ben Kaasa 29
2018 March 24 1 Clinical Teaching: Staph Aureus bacteremia Ben Kaasa 30
18-Dec-18 4 Family Medicine Supervision David Tannenbaum 31
11-Mar-19 4 Family Medicine Supervision David Tannenbaum 32
11-Dec-18 4 Family Medicine Supervision David Tannenbaum 33
07-Dec-18 4 Family Medicine Supervision David Tannenbaum 34
06-Jul-18 4 Family Medicine Teaching Unit n/a 35
09-Jul-18 4 Family Medicine Teaching Unit n/a 36
10-Jul-18 4 Family Medicine Teaching Unit n/a 37
11-Jul-18 4 Family Medicine Teaching Unit n/a 38
12-Jul-18 4 Family Medicine Teaching Unit n/a 39
26-Feb 1 Education Program Design Vince Chien 40
01-Mar-19 2 Rehab Medicine Supervision Christine Soong 41
05-Mar-19 3.5 Rehab Medicine Supervision Christine Soong 42
08-Mar-19 2 Rehab Medicine Supervision Christine Soong 43
26-Feb-19 3 Rehab Medicine Supervision Christine Soong 44
09-Nov-18 4 Family Medicine Supervision David Tannenbaum 45
07-May-19 4 Family Medicine Supervision David Tannenbaum 46
28-May-19 4 Family Medicine Supervision David Tannenbaum 47
01-Jun-19 2 Curriculum Design Christine Soong 48
June 5th, 2019 4 PGY2 Academic Project Judging Panel Erin Bearss 49
11-Jun-19 2 Interprofessional Education Christine Soong/Jordan Pelc 50

Teaching Journal: A Reflection

While it took me much longer than expected to complete my practicum, compiling teaching logs over almost 3 years afforded me a birds-eye view perspective that has been immensely valuable to forming a foundation for my developing teaching career. Upon reflection, 3 general observations warrant particular focus.

First, a wide canvas of teaching opportunities permits experimentation with a wide array of teaching modalities at different moments in one’s career. When I started logging activities, I was a Fellow just learning how to mentor junior trainees. Many of these earlier experiences involved learning how to assume the “Junior Attending” role and the basic tasks (e.g., co-ordinating care, leading discussions, providing feedback) of running a team. As my career transitioned to a staff physician role, I was able to dedicate increasing time to honing a teaching style and refining previously given talks. I also had increasing opportunities to not only teach, but to “teach about teaching.” For example, in log 8 I talk about how the experience of reviewing consults was aided by using Kolb’s experiential learning style to “abstract” key concepts for teaching that learners could apply in future clinical scenarios (McLeod, 2017). Later in Logs 36 -40, after creating a family medicine teaching unit as a staff physician, I had the opportunity to teach this style of “attending” to new fellows and create an educational unit that focused both on learning for junior learners and leading for our fellow. In this way, teaching becomes a transactional exercise across generations of learners.

A second observation I’ve made is that a prolonged “education” practicum can be challenging inasmuch as it leads to a certain degree of ‘inherent disorganization.’ Despite attempting to form a cohesive and consistent experience based on a unifying teaching philosophy, I instead discovered that many teaching opportunities were haphazard, impromptu, and not necessarily closely related to my areas of interest such as integration or curriculum design. In log 28, for example, I document my somewhat unplanned and awkward experience teaching a resident how to perform a sebaceous cyst removal. While these ‘extraneous experiences’ might result in a somewhat disjointed collection of logs, they can also prove reinvigorating. I began to learn about new possibilities, unknown weakness, and the value of experimentation.

A third and final observation is that, a multitude of different experiences notwithstanding, I can still see the signal amidst the noise. As I scan over my logs, I see increasing focus over the years on my personal teaching philosophy, specifically on the value of integration. In later sessions, I was able to experiment increasingly with pre-fabricated talks that teach an approach to a common clinical problem using a physiology-based classification scheme. I increasingly came to appreciate what worked well and what didn’t. For example, in Log 43 and in accordance with previous studies in the literature, I found that integration of basic science was most effective when embedded throughout the talk with explicit links to clinical application (Baghdady MT, 2009) (Woods NN, 2005). In this teaching experience, I talked about how reticulocytosis in the bone marrow is a physiologic response to anemia that permits a classifications schema of what’s wrong (e.g., bleeding, hemolysis etc.) that clinicians can use to create a robust approach to patients with a low hemoglobin.

I can conclude by noting that, cumulatively, these experiences form a blueprint for what comes next in my teaching career. As can be seen from later logs, I have begun several program-level initiatives to build on past activities. In Log 48, I comment on the experience of designing a “rehabilitation hospitalist curriculum” for incoming residents and fellows at Bridgepoint Hospital. Here I am hoping to draw from principles of integration to design an elective experience that focuses on Systematic rather than Opportunist educational opportunities. One such activity might be a “neurology day” wherein learners have a chance to practice integrated care of neurological patients, including a supervised physical exam, an introduction to therapy, and active discharge planning. Consistent with Harden’s SPICES model of curriculum design, the objective will be to focus on structured planning of educational experiences rather than simply “hoping for the best” that residents see what they need to see on their rotation (Harden RM, 1984). Through this and other opportunities, the collection of teaching exercises that comprise my practicum continue to imbue me with a confidence that my teaching will continue to evolve in dynamic, yet systematic ways.

 

References

Baghdady MT, P. M. (2009). The role of basic sciences in diagnostic oral radiology. J Dent Educ, 73(10), 1187-1193.

Harden RM, S. S. (1984). Educational strategies in curriculum development: The SPICES model. . Med Educ., 18(4), 284-297.

McLeod, S. (2017). Kolb’s Learning Styles and Experiential Learning Cycle. Retrieved from Simplypsychology.org: https://www.simplypsychology.org/learning-kolb.html

Woods NN, B. L. (2005). The value of basic science in clinical diagnosis: Creating coherence among signs and symptoms. Med Educ, 39(1), 107-112.