Trainee Love and Breakup Letters to NephSIM: A Free, Mobile-Optimized, Nephrology Teaching Tool.

BACKGROUND: It is not known how learners feel about free open access medical education (FOAMed) as they progress through their training from medical school to fellowship. Love and breakup letter methodology (LBM) is a technique that has been used extensively in user experience technology-based research but has not previously been used in evaluating medical education tools. LBM asks participants to creatively write a "love" or "breakup" letter to a product under study to capture their thoughts and emotions when engaging with it. We conducted qualitative analysis of data from focus groups to explore how attitudes toward a learning platform change at various training stages and to broaden our understanding of how we meet learners' needs through a nephrology FOAMed tool, NephSIM. METHODS: Three virtual, recorded focus groups were conducted with second-year medical students, internal medicine residents, and nephrology fellows ( N =18). At the start of the focus group, participants composed and read their love and breakup letters. Semistructured discussions were then led by facilitator-driven questions and peer comments. After transcription, inductive data analysis was conducted using Braun and Clarke's six-step thematic analysis. RESULTS: Four main themes were seen across all groups: attitudes toward teaching tool, perception of nephrology, learning needs and approach, and application to practice. Preclinical students positively viewed the opportunity to simulate the clinical setting and unanimously wrote love letters. Reactions from residents and fellows were mixed. Residents were interested in brevity and speed of learning, preferring algorithms and succinct approaches to meet their practice-based learning needs. Fellows' learning needs were driven by a desire to prepare for the nephrology board examination and review cases uncommonly seen in practice. CONCLUSIONS: LBM provided a valuable methodology through which to identify trainee reactions to a FOAMed tool and highlighted the challenges of meeting learning needs of a continuum of trainees with a single learning platform.

Building leadership capacity among junior faculty: Evaluating multi-level outcomes of a leadership program.

Introduction: Leadership is recognized as an essential competency across healthcare and science. The LEAD (Leadership Emerging in Academic Departments) program at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS) is a structured 12-month blended learning program that catalyzes personal and professional leadership skills, behaviors, and capacity. Methods: Utilizing a post-program survey design, the Leadership Program Outcome Measure (LPOM) explored self-reported impact of the LEAD program on leadership knowledge and skills in relation to personal and organizational leadership constructs. Application of leadership skills to practice was tracked via completion of a leadership-focused capstone project. Results: Over 3 cohorts, 76 participants graduated and 50 completed the LPOM survey (68% response rate). Participants self-reported an increase in leadership skills, conveyed plans to use acquired skills in current and future leadership positions, and noted improved leadership skills across the personal and organizational domains. Comparatively less change was detected at the community level. Tracking of capstone projects found that 64% of participants were able to successfully implement their project in practice. Conclusion: LEAD was successful in promoting the development of personal and organizational leadership practices. The LPOM evaluation provided a valuable lens through which to assess the individual, interpersonal, and organizational impact of a multidimensional leadership training program.

Tales from New York City, the pandemic epicenter: A case study of COVID-19 impact on clinical and translational research training at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

In the spring of 2020, New York City was at the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic in the USA, resulting in disruption of TL1 and KL2-mentored Clinical and Translational Science (CTS) research at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS). The impact of the pandemic on trainees' research productivity and career plans was explored using a qualitative survey. Participant responses were analyzed using coding and categorization. Six key themes emerged: redirection of effort, reduced access to people, lack of access to resources, home as a workplace, future uncertainty, and stress and anxiety. Insight into participant experiences allows for the development of support strategies and resources to address trainee needs.

Busting myths in online education: Faculty examples from the field.

The shift in learning environments due to the COVID-19 pandemic necessitates a closer look at course design, faculty approaches to teaching, and student interaction, all of which may predict learner achievement and satisfaction. Transitioning to an online environment requires the reinvention, reimagining, and applying of "e-flavors" of general learning theory. With this shift to online learning comes the opportunity for misunderstandings and "myths" to occur, which may stand in the way of faculty embracing online learning and fully realizing its potential. This article seeks to address several myths and misconceptions that have arisen in higher education during the rapid shift to online teaching and learning. While not comprehensive, these myths represent a snapshot of common challenges. These are we can transfer our in-person course design to online; adult learners do not need an empathetic approach; and online teaching and learning is socially isolating. Through an appreciative inquiry framework, we present each myth in the context of relevant literature and invite faculty with varied online teaching experience to share their own case studies that illustrate how they have "busted" these myths with the goal to identify existing examples of locally effective practices for the express purpose of replication that leads to positive change.

Evaluating the impact of a health hackathon on collaborative team science: a Social Network Analysis (SNA).

The Mount Sinai Health Hackathon is designed to provide a novel forum to foster experiential team science training. Utilizing a Social Network Analysis survey, we studied the impact of the Mount Sinai Health Hackathon on the nature of collaborative relationships of hackathon participants. After the event, the number of links between participants from different disciplines increased and network density overall increased, suggesting a more interconnected network with greater interdisciplinary communication. This social network approach may be a useful addition to the evaluation strategies for team science education initiatives.