A lot of newly Matched fourth years are going through a rough time right now. This pandemic has messed up your end-of-year rotations, cancelled long-awaited graduations and done who-knows-what with plans to move to wherever your residency is. And a lot of students want something to “prepare” them for what’s to come.
First fact, there is truly no way to prepare you for starting residency in the Year of COVID-19. No one has lived through something like this. You’re going to have a lot of firsts – ones you only share with your co-residents across the country.
Having said that…
- if you are starting in urgent care or emergency medicine settings, consider using ALiEM’s eight week “Bridge to EM” course.
- if you’re starting in the ICU consider using OnlineMedEd’s “Crash Course in Medicine.” which is 12.5 hours of video
- and for everyone else you might want to consider OnlineMedEd’s $250 combination of Intern Bootcamp and CaseX series.
Some may even start in an outpatient setting, such as a COVID-19 testing site or “sick clinic” to see the patients who need a physical exam, or can’t access telehealth options. Or in pediatrics or OB. On surgery or cardiology. As family medicine our training is wonderfully diverse, and predicting where you may be is difficult. You may not even get a schedule until late June.
So, I made something I would want if I was in your shoes. It’s a six week “curriculum” (entirely inspired by ALiEM’s Bridge Course) that includes AFP articles, TEACH cards and podcasts on topics across the FM spectrum. It also includes a daily EKG or photo quiz, and a daily FOAM component (mostly tweetorials).
What makes me capable of putting this together?
Imposter syndrome says “nothing,” but…
- I was part of the curriculum committee for two years of residency
- As a PGY3 I was the lead resident for planning our weekly didactics, selecting topics and choosing guest lecturers
- Before handing off leadership of the didactic committee I re-vamped the curriculum into an 18-month repeating cycle, using ACGME requirements, STFM curriculum guides, research from prior residents (based on ABFM board topics), and incorporating required modules from the program leadership.
So how do I get started?
Go to the main course page here.
When does it start?
Monday, April 27th. I’ll post the full PDF that day, with the entire six week schedule, but there will also be a weekly post with extra Tweetorials or relevant awesomeness I find between now and then.
