Impact of Longitudinal Coaching on Pediatric Residents' Professional Identity Formation: A Multi-Institution Qualitative Study.

OBJECTIVE: Coaching has emerged in medical education as a strategy for trainees' development and has been endorsed by the Coalition for Physician Accountability and the American Medical Association. However, there is a lack of literature on how coaching impacts residents' professional identity formation (PIF). The purpose of this study was to explore how longitudinal clinical coaching impacted the professional identity of residency graduates. METHODS: In July to November 2020, we conducted an Institutional Review Board-approved qualitative study with semistructured interviews of residency graduates from 2 pediatric programs who participated in a longitudinal coaching program. We inductively analyzed the transcripts using thematic analysis, guided by the sensitizing principles of PIF. We did a member check to enhance trustworthiness. RESULTS: We interviewed 34 residency graduates from 2 institutions and identified 4 themes on how coaches influenced residency graduates' PIF by 1) the presence of a trusting relationship; 2) creating trust and sense of belonging through longitudinal encounters, supportive reflection, and formative feedback; 3) integrating clinical skill, career interests, and work-life integration; and 4) reflecting on their own personal and professional identities. Residency graduates highlighted coaching strategies that coaches, coaching programs, and residents themselves can take to promote resident PIF during residency. CONCLUSIONS: Residency coaches have the potential to influence residents' PIF through their longitudinal relationship grounded in trust. Coaching strategies can be used to enhance resident clinical and professional development during residency training.

"The curriculum brings equity to the forefront": Pediatric residents' perspectives and experiences in a longitudinal EDI curriculum.

BACKGROUND: The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) Common Program Requirements include training in caring for diverse populations and understanding social determinants of health. Our large pediatric residency program implemented a longitudinal equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) curriculum. OBJECTIVE: To explore pediatric residents' perspectives and experiences in our longitudinal EDI curriculum. METHODS: We applied the holistic framework by Haji et al. to characterize the effect of our EDI curriculum. We conducted 4 focus groups from November 2019 to September 2020 with trained facilitators using a structured question guide. We approached all eligible senior residents (n = 87) via email to participate. Project members coded written notes and transcripts and analyzed data using inductive thematic analysis. RESULTS: 26 pediatric senior residents participated either in person (n = 13) or online (n = 13). Themes emerged from domains of knowledge, attitudes and behavioral change. These included having: (1) increased knowledge surrounding EDI issues, (2) a framework and language to better engage in EDI efforts and (3) increased confidence interrupting bias and microaggressions. Additional themes demonstrated: an increased need for EDI education at the institutional level, the unique experiences of Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) trainees, and systemic barriers to equitable care. CONCLUSION: A longitudinal EDI curriculum has the potential to influence individual trainees, their work, and perceptions of the broader institutions in which they operate. Residents recognized and valued the curriculum and felt driven to use this knowledge to ensure that institutional policies and practices led to equitable clinical care.

The Effects of Coaching Pediatric Residents on Faculty Coaches' Relationships, Learning, and Professional Identity Formation.

PURPOSE: Coaching programs have been implemented in medical education to improve skill development and feedback for trainees. As more faculty take on coaching roles, it is critical to understand how being a coach affects faculty as well as trainees. This study examined the effects of coaching residents on faculty members' relationships, learning, and professional identity formation (PIF), as they move through intersecting communities across landscapes of practice. METHOD: From July 2020 to January 2021, the authors conducted a mixed-methods study of current and former coaches at 2 institutions with longitudinal pediatric resident coaching programs. They used a concurrent triangulation design in which qualitative and quantitative data were collected simultaneously and integrated during data analysis. A survey explored the impact of coaching on faculty members' learning, relationships, and PIF, and semistructured interviews further examined coaches' experiences. The interview transcripts were analyzed inductively guided by the sensitizing principles of PIF and landscapes of practice. RESULTS: Of 43 eligible coaches, 32 (74%) completed the survey, and 18 completed interviews. Four themes emerged from the interviews. (1) Coaches' relationships supported belonging in multiple communities. (2) Coaching enabled multidimensional learning. (3) Relationships served as mechanisms of learning for coaches. (4) Coaches' relationships and learning catalyzed PIF. Furthermore, there was a significant difference in the effects of coaching on career growth by faculty rank ( P = .02). Coaches' strengthened PIF increased a sense of purpose, meaning, and professional fulfillment, and inspired new career directions. Survey data further supported these findings. CONCLUSIONS: Being a coach deepened faculty members' professional identities through their varied relationships, multidimensional learning, and sense of belonging in intersecting communities. This study introduces a framework to understand the factors mediating coaches' PIF and highlights how investing in coaching leads to important benefits for coaches.

Description of a novel curriculum on equity, diversity and inclusion for pediatric residents.

BACKGROUND: Accreditation standards in medical education require curricular elements dedicated to understanding diversity and addressing inequities in health care. The development and implementation of culturally effective care curricula are crucial to improving health care outcomes, yet these curricular elements are currently limited in residency training. METHODS: A needs assessment of 125 pediatric residents was conducted that revealed minimal prior culturally effective care instruction. To address identified needs, an integrated, longitudinal equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) curriculum was designed and implemented at a single institution using Kern's Framework. This consisted of approximately 25 h of instruction including monthly didactics and sessions which addressed (1) EDI definitions and history and (2) microaggressions. A mixed methods evaluation was used to assess the curricular elements with quantitative summary of resident session scores and a qualitative component using in-depth content analysis of resident evaluations. Thematic analysis was used to code qualitative responses and identify common attitudes and perceptions about the curricular content. RESULTS: 109/125 (87.2%) residents completed the needs assessment. Over one year, 323 resident evaluations were collected for curricular sessions. Average overall quality rating for sessions was 4.7 (scale 1-5), and 85% of comments included positive feedback. Key themes included lecture topic relevance, adequate time to cover the content, need for screening tools and patient resources, importance of patient case examples to supplement instruction, and novel/ "eye opening" content. In addition, several broader institutional impacts of the curriculum were noted such as recognizing the need for comprehensive support for residents of color, corresponding EDI faculty training, and a resident reporting system to identify learning climate issues. CONCLUSIONS: The implementation of a comprehensive resident EDI curriculum was feasible earning positive evaluations in its first year, with requests for additional content. It has also spurred multiple institution-wide ripple effects. Suggestions for improvement included more case-based learning, skills practice, and simulation. Future steps include expansion of this EDI curriculum to faculty and examining its impact in resident of color affinity groups. Given ACGME requirements to improve training addressing equity and social determinants of health, this curriculum development process serves as a possible template for other training programs.

The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Pediatric Graduate Medical Education: Lessons Learned and Pathways Forward.

In this article, the authors describe the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on pediatric graduate medical education (GME), including the impact on clinical experiences for trainees, teaching methods used, trainee wellness, GME leader wellness and support, and the traditional interview process. A thorough literature review was done to identify impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on pediatric GME. In addition, information was collected through Association of Pediatric Program Directors virtual cafes and conferences. Positive changes for GME from the COVID-19 pandemic included: the rapid transition to telehealth; asynchronous learning allowing for increased cross-program collaboration; innovative online teaching modalities; increased flexibility and decreased cost of online recruitment; and shared innovations across pediatric GME. Challenging aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic included: decreased learning about common childhood illnesses, such as bronchiolitis, acute otitis media, and influenza; decreased patient volumes and patient complexity in clinics and inpatient wards, leading to less practice developing efficiency, time management, and triaging skills; and an increased burden on trainees, including moral distress and decreased support from one another and other social supports. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted important opportunities in U.S. educational systems. As medical educators move forward, it will be important to learn from these while mitigating the negative impacts.

Parenthood and Parental Leave Decisions in Pediatric Residency.

OBJECTIVES: The demands of residency training may impact trainees' decision to have children. We examined characteristics of pediatric residents' decisions regarding childbearing, determinants of resident parental leave, and associations with well-being. METHODS: A survey of 845 pediatric residents at 13 programs was conducted between October 2019 and May 2020. Survey items included demographics, desire for future children, and logistics of parental leave. Outcomes included parental leave length, burnout and depression screening results, satisfaction with duration of breastfeeding, and satisfaction with parental leave and parenthood decisions. RESULTS: Seventy-six percent (639 of 845) of residents responded to the survey. Fifty-two percent (330) of respondents reported delaying having children during residency, and 29% (97) of those were dissatisfied with their decision to do so. Busy work schedule (89.7%), finances (50.9%), and a desire not to extend residency (41.2%) were the most common reasons for delay. Of respondents, 16% were parents and 4% were pregnant or had pregnant partners. Sixty-one parental leaves were reported, and 67% of parents reported dissatisfaction with leave length. The most frequently self-reported determinant of leave duration was the desire not to extend residency training (74%). Program mean leave length was negatively associated with burnout, measured as a dichotomous outcome (odds ratio = 0.81 [95% confidence interval 0.68-0.98]; P = .02). CONCLUSIONS: Many pediatric trainees delay parenthood during residency and are not satisfied with their decision to do so. Pediatric resident parental leave remains short and variable in duration, despite the positive association between longer leaves and overall well-being.

Grounded in Justice: An Equity Framework for Chief Residents.

The 2019-2020 academic year was unprecedented, with navigating the COVID-19 pandemic and meaningfully engaging with the causes and consequences of long-standing racism and social injustice in the United States. In this article, the authors, all former chief residents, reflect on how they carried out their role during this last year using an approach that was grounded in equity and justice. They describe a framework based on their experiences, including setting the tone and culture of the residency program; providing medical education, teaching, and feedback; advocating for resident well-being and inclusion; participating in quality improvement and hospital policymaking; and partnering for institutional change. They end with a call to action to reconceptualize the role of the chief resident to include the genuine work of diversity, equity, and inclusion to ensure a more equitable future.

Understanding physician burnout.

Physician well-being is associated with benefits for physicians, patients, and health care systems. Well-being encompasses many inter-related attributes, including but not limited to resilience, fulfillment, joy in work, and burnout. Among these, burnout has been studied most widely, and has been found to be more frequent among medical trainees and professionals than in the general population. Burnout has been associated with physician depression and suicidality, which are also more frequent among physicians than the general population. The negative effects of burnout include decreased patient satisfaction, increased medical errors, and increased costs. Physician burnout has been associated with both organization-level drivers that contribute to an imbalance between resources and workload for physicians, and individual-level drivers related to resilience practices and attitudes. This paper reviews the literature on the epidemiology, drivers, and implications of physician burnout.

Training Pediatricians to Address Health Disparities: An Innovative Residency Track Combining Global Health With Community Pediatrics and Advocacy.

PROBLEM: Pediatric residency programs have been tasked to train a workforce of pediatricians with skills in community pediatrics (CP) and advocacy, and knowledge of global child health priorities. APPROACH: In 2009, the University of Washington (UW) Seattle Children's Hospital pediatric residency program developed the Resident Education in Advocacy and Child Health (REACH) program, a combined pathway for global health (GH) and CP training. After participating in a combined curriculum, residents complete a community immersion either in Kisii, Kenya (GH) or rural Washington (CP). This approach provides an efficient use of faculty and administrative resources and delivers a sustainable and ethical strategy for inspiring pediatric residents to address child health problems at a systems level. OUTCOMES: Between 2009 and 2013, the percentage of graduating residents from the UW pediatric residency program who rated GH training as "outstanding/excellent/good" increased from 58.4% to 100%, and the percentage rating community and population health training as "outstanding/excellent/good" increased from 56% to 88.8%. Annual applicant surveys in the period 2011-2014 revealed that the REACH program led a significant percentage of candidates to rank the UW pediatric residency more favorably because of its GH (37%-48%) and CP (55%-74%) training. NEXT STEPS: A mixed-methods assessment will evaluate the impact on resident confidence in core areas of community health and advocacy including collaborating with community groups, setting professional career goals, addressing underlying determinants of health during patient encounters, communicating in cross-cultural settings, and advocating for child health. A survey will assess outcomes on graduates' careers.

Conducting Quantitative Medical Education Research: From Design to Dissemination.

Rigorous medical education research is critical to effectively develop and evaluate the training we provide our learners. Yet many clinical medical educators lack the training and skills needed to conduct high-quality medical education research. We offer guidance on conducting sound quantitative medical education research. Our aim is to equip readers with the key skills and strategies necessary to conduct successful research projects, highlighting new concepts and controversies in the field. We utilize Glassick's criteria for scholarship as a framework to discuss strategies to ensure that the research question of interest is worthy of further study and how to use existing literature and conceptual frameworks to strengthen a research study. Through discussions of the strengths and limitations of commonly used study designs, we expose the reader to particular nuances of these decisions in medical education research and discuss outcomes generally focused on, as well as strategies for determining the significance of consequent findings. We conclude with information on critiquing research findings and preparing results for dissemination to a broad audience. Practical planning worksheets and comprehensive tables illustrating key concepts are provided in order to guide researchers through each step of the process. Medical education research provides wonderful opportunities to improve how we teach our learners, to satisfy our own intellectual curiosity, and ultimately to enhance the care provided to patients.

A Simulation-based Quality Improvement Approach to Improve Pediatric Resident Competency with Required Procedures.

INTRODUCTION: Pediatric residents report a lack of confidence and competence with procedural skills at graduation. Training programs could benefit from improved approaches to target these needs. Using the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) Model for Improvement and three Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycles, we examined the impact of a procedure simulation boot camp on self-reported procedural confidence and competence as well as the longitudinal impacts of these sequential interventions on Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) Graduating Resident Survey (GRS) results. METHODS: Three rapid cycle interventions were performed in successive academic years. The interventions included 1) increased awareness of available procedural experiences, 2) institution of procedural educational conferences, and 3) implementation of a senior resident procedure boot camp. Senior resident self-reported procedural confidence was measured before and after the boot camp. Procedural competence was measured using the ACGME GRS.  Results: Thirty-two of 34 senior residents (94%) completed the 2016 ACGME GRS, similar to the response rates of 2014 (92%) and 2015 (94%), and 30 of 34 third-year residents participated in the procedure boot camp (88%). Resident confidence and competence with procedural skills improved after the institution of the quality improvement intervention. ACGME GRS-reported competency increased in bag and mask ventilation (77% to 94%), neonatal endotracheal intubation (39% to 69%), peripheral IV placement (10% to 50%), and umbilical catheter placement (35% to 53%). CONCLUSION: A quality improvement intervention with three rapid PDSA cycles was successful in improving senior pediatric resident confidence and competence with ACGME required procedural skills.

Training pediatric residents to provide parent education: a randomized controlled trial.

OBJECTIVE: We evaluated the effect of Primary Care Positive Parenting Program (Triple P) training on pediatric residents and the families they serve to test 2 hypotheses: first, training would significantly improve resident skill in identifying and addressing discrete parenting and child behavior problems; and second, parents would report an improvement in their sense of self-efficacy, use of positive discipline strategies, and their child's behavior. METHODS: Study participants included pediatric residents from 3 community clinics of a pediatric residency program, as well as English-speaking parents of children aged 18 months to 12 years without a diagnosed behavior disorder cared for by study residents. Residents were randomized to receive Primary Care Triple P training either at the beginning or end of the study period. The measured resident outcomes were self-assessed confidence and skills in giving parenting advice. The measured family outcomes were parent sense of self-efficacy, child externalizing behavior, and discipline strategies. RESULTS: Primary Care Triple P training had a positive, significant, and persistent impact on residents' parenting consultation skills (mean increase on Parent Consultation Skills Checklist 48.11, 95% confidence interval [CI] 40.07, 57.36). Parents visiting intervention-trained residents demonstrated improved disciplinary practices compared to parents visiting control residents (mean change in Child Discipline Survey 0.322, 95% CI 0.02, 0.71), with stronger differential effects for parents with lower baseline skills (mean Child Discipline Survey change 0.822, 95% CI 0.48, 1.83). No differences were found for child behavior or parenting sense of confidence. CONCLUSIONS: Training residents in Primary Care Triple P can have a positive impact on consultation skills and parent disciplinary practices. This finding adds strength to the call for increased residency training in behavioral pediatrics.

Risks of congenital malformations and perinatal events among infants exposed to calcium channel and beta-blockers during pregnancy.

PURPOSE: Calcium channel blockers and beta-blockers (BBs) are widely used during pregnancy, but data on their safety for the developing infant are scarce. We used population-based data from 5 HMOs to study risks for perinatal complications and congenital defects among infants exposed in-utero. METHODS: We studied women older than 15 years delivering an infant between 1/1/96 and 12/31/00, who had been continuously enrolled with prescription drug coverage for ≥ 1 year prior to delivery. Information on prescription drug dispensings, inpatient, and outpatient diagnoses and procedures was obtained from automated databases at each HMO. RESULTS: There were 584 full-term infants exposed during pregnancy to BBs and 804 full-term infants exposed to calcium-channel blockers, and over 75,000 unexposed mother-infant pairs with ≥ 30 days follow-up. Infants exposed to BBs in the third trimester of pregnancy had over threefold increased risk for hypoglycemia (RR 3.1; 95% CI 2.2, 4.2) and an approximately twofold increased risk for feeding problems (RR 1.8; 95% CI 1.3, 2.5). Infants exposed to calcium-channel blockers in the third trimester had an increased risk for seizures (RR 3.6 95% CI 1.3, 10.4). Chart review confirmed the majority of the exposed seizure and hypoglycemia cases. There were no increased risks for congenital anomalies among either group of infants, except for the category of upper alimentary tract anomalies; this increased risk was based on only two exposed cases. CONCLUSIONS: Infants whose mothers receive BBs are at increased risk for neonatal hypoglycemia, while those whose mothers take calcium-channel blockers are at increased risk for neonatal seizures.

Enhancing teamwork between chief residents and residency program directors: description and outcomes of an experiential workshop.

BACKGROUND: An effective working relationship between chief residents and residency program directors is critical to a residency program's success. Despite the importance of this relationship, few studies have explored the characteristics of an effective program director-chief resident partnership or how to facilitate collaboration between the 2 roles, which collectively are important to program quality and resident satisfaction. We describe the development and impact of a novel workshop that paired program directors with their incoming chief residents to facilitate improved partnerships. METHODS: The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education sponsored a full-day workshop for residency program directors and their incoming chief residents. Sessions focused on increased understanding of personality styles, using experiential learning, and open communication between chief residents and program directors, related to feedback and expectations of each other. Participants completed an anonymous survey immediately after the workshop and again 8 months later to assess its long-term impact. RESULTS: Participants found the workshop to be a valuable experience, with comments revealing common themes. Program directors and chief residents expect each other to act as a role model for the residents, be approachable and available, and to be transparent and fair in their decision-making processes; both groups wanted feedback on performance and clear expectations from each other for roles and responsibilities; and both groups identified the need to be innovative and supportive of changes in the program. Respondents to the follow-up survey reported that workshop participation improved their relationships with their co-chiefs and program directors. CONCLUSION: Participation in this experiential workshop improved the working relationships between chief residents and program directors. The themes that were identified can be used to foster communication between incoming chief residents and residency directors and to develop a curriculum for chief resident development.