1:00 pm - 5:00 pm

Pre-Conference Workshops (Choose One)

1. Leading the Clerkship in Pediatrics: A Workshop for New Clerkship Directors
2. How to Write a Grant
3. Competency Skills Development in Pediatrics (held off-site)

Lunch on your own (There are several restaurants as well as extensive food court in the CNN center. Please see the Atlanta guide for recommendations and other details)

General Session
Welcome and Meeting Overview- David Levine, MD
COMSEP Updates
Task Force Reports
President's Address - William Raszka, MD

COMSEP General Session
COMSEP Business Items - William Raszka, MD
Miller/Sarkin Invited Lectureship Speaker: Former Surgeon General, David Satcher, MD, PhD

Registration

Closing Dinner

$375.00 prior to March 3, 2008;
$400.00 after March 3, 2008 or on-site

PRE-CONFERENCE WORKSHOP DESCRIPTIONS

Thursday, April 3, 2008, Pre-Conference Workshop 8:00 am - 12:00 pm
(Note: There is a $50 fee for pre-conference workshops)

Leading the Clerkship in Pediatrics: A Workshop for New Clerkship Directors
Presenters: Mitchell Harris, MD; Jennifer Koestler, MD; Christopher White, MD; Julie Story Byerley, MD, MPH

This workshop is designed for new clerkship directors and other faculty with clerkship responsibilities who would benefit from a broad introduction to a variety of topics related to their position. If you have questions about getting started, clerkship organization and administration, curriculum development and implementation, problem solving strategies, and your own career development, then this is the workshop for you! These issues and those raised by participants will be explored; strategies that have worked for others will be highlighted. Workshop leaders will share challenges and solutions including "lessons I wish someone had taught me when I started this job," "how do I keep my eye on the ball while managing the minutiae," and "what should I be doing that I don't even know about?" Please join us for an informative, real world, and FUN workshop designed to give you a jump-start and help you succeed in this new role. Workshop organizers encourage those participating to email specific questions/concerns ahead of the workshop to jennifer.koestler@mssm.edu. The objectives are: 1. Outline the responsibilities of the clerkship director; 2. Assemble a model for curriculum design to utilize for analysis or development in your clerkship; 3. Understand objectives and competencies; 4. Understand various teaching methodologies; 5. Compare and contrast different feedback and evaluation methods and determine the feasibility of implementation in your clerkship; 6. Understand LCME requirements; 7. Compile resources to further enhance your clerkship and your academic success as an educator. This interactive workshop will have a combination of lecture and small group breakout sessions to review the roles and responsibilities of a clerkship director, review teaching and evaluation strategies, and brainstorm to assure the success of faculty in this role.

Writing effective grants to support your scholarship and research is one important aspect for making your innovations become reality. Some people find the experience time consuming and daunting. There are some key aspects of grant writing, however, which can make this process rewarding on many levels. This workshop will combine large group review and small group work. We will review the basic components of grants, how to write them and common pitfalls to avoid. Participants will then work in small groups with members of the research and scholarship taskforce and focus on how to ask answerable questions, complete a needs assessment and explore appropriate methodologies to approach your project. To provide a practical framework, participants will work through the process of preparing a grant for the COMSEP small grants award program. Participants will also receive reference materials to help them submit a proposal for the next round of grant applications.

Cultural Competency Skills Development in Pediatrics
Presenters: Angela Mihalic, MD; David Levine, MD; Harold Bland, MD; Maxine Clarke, MD; Bonnie O'Connor, PhD; Randy Rockney, MD; Maria Marquez, MD; Bonita Savage, RN, MPH

In testimony before Congress, during his tenure as Surgeon General, Dr. David Satcher spoke eloquently, "Compelling evidence that race and ethnicity correlate with persistent, and often increasing, health disparities among U.S. populations demands national attention…. Current information about the biologic and genetic characteristics of racial and ethnic groups does not explain the health disparities experienced by these groups compared with the white, non-Hispanic population in the United States. These disparities are believed to be the result of the complex interaction between genetic variations, environmental factors, economics, specific health behaviors, and discrimination." While known for many years, the study of and elimination of health disparities have become a priority. Central to many elements discussed for reduction and elimination of disparities is practicing culturally competent health care. There are many methods for teaching medical students the issues related to culture and medicine. This pre-conference workshop will work to give resources, tools, and skills to those attending, that may be adopted at their home institutions and teaching programs. Some of the solutions discussed will be relevant to pre-clinical years' education or during the pediatrics clerkship (and even postgraduate education). During the workshop, the leaders -- Angela Mihalic and David Levine with co-leaders Harold Bland, Maxine Clarke, Bonnie O'Connor, Randy Rockney, and Maria Marquez -- will take the participants through activities meant to stimulate thought and discussion about educating students in incorporating culturally competent care into the medical encounter. From very inexpensive (and older) simulations such as Bafa' Bafa', through computer-assisted instruction simulation, and through clinical skills simulations, participants will be able to evaluate and consider using the products or other products in their home education programs. Central will be the clinical skills exercise, adapting recently developed cases from Maimonides Medical Center (and Dr. Lita Aeder) to use for clerkship and pre-clinical education. Our workshop audience may be anyone from beginners anxious to begin a program, to experienced educators who wish to refine their education programs with the best new materials. We will meet off-site at the Morehouse School of Medicine campus. Transportation will pick the group up at the Omni at 7:30 am to arrive on the Morehouse School of Medicine campus and be ready to begin the workshop at 8 am. We will depart by 12:30 back for the Omni. All exercises will be held in the clinical skills lab and e-lab in the MSM National Center for Primary Care, our health disparities institute.

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WORKSHOP DESCRIPTIONS: Friday, April 4, 2008, Choice of Attending One Workshop, 1:45 pm - 3:15 pm

Many medical schools are faced with insufficient clinical faculty or institutional resources to provide Pediatric Clerkship training for all of their students within their own institutions' clinics or hospitals. Many clerkship directors must therefore rely on multiple and distant community-based training sites to obtain their required clerkship experience. There are multiple challenges involved in recruiting, establishing and providing faculty development for these community pediatricians (CBP) who have full-time, busy practices. Faculty development, in particular, is essential in order to ensure that the students' experience meets curricular needs and provides an optimum learning experience. At the conclusion of this workshop, the participant will: 1. Have acquired a better understanding of the challenges involved in establishing and providing faculty development at distant sites; 2. Be able to access high quality faculty development resources available on the Web; 3. Identify challenges which are unique to his/her own program (institution), and be able to share possible solutions with her/his Department Chair; 4. Have the opportunity to network with other educators facing similar challenges in order to develop possible strategies and solutions. Approaches to establishing excellent community-based and distant teaching sites, and providing effective faculty development for teachers at these sites, will briefly be presented by facilitators from three different geographic regions of the country, each with active community-based and distant education programs for medical students. Discussion will focus on common problems, unique solutions and readily available resources. Following the presentations, participants will brainstorm challenges to establishing or maintaining distant sites at their own institution and from this list three key topics will be chosen for further discussion. Participants will then break out into small groups to brainstorm solutions. The workshop will conclude with a sharing of ideas as well as generation of a list of additional resources needed that can be used by the COMSEP task force.

Everything we do in life requires communication with others. It is a necessary skill we use daily in clinical practice and in education. We use various forms of verbal and non-verbal communications in nearly everything we do, and we generally give little thought to the process. Communication is, however, both an art and a science, and requires our full attention and consideration if we are to use it skillfully. Interactions with our learners require effective communication skills. Successful communication often hinges on how well we ‘understand' others and how well they ‘understand' us. The majority of the problems and conflicts we experience at work and in our personal lives stems from our failure to communicate effectively. In our interaction with others, including our learners, we tend to assume that our words and actions are understood as we intend them. Unfortunately, it just doesn't work out that way. We misinterpret and are misunderstood and don't usually realize it until conflict arises. Good communication skills can be learned but it takes work and practice. In this workshop, participants will learn strategies for improving their communication skills. The objectives are: 1-Identify characteristics of good and bad communication; 2-Identify barriers to effective listening and communication and strategies to overcome these barriers; 3-Articulate an individual action plan to improve your communication skills; 4-Provide practice for using verbal and non verbal techniques in order to listen and communicate more effectively. This interactive workshop will help participants learn and practice techniques in effective communication by using individual and group activities, role play and facilitated discussions. We will first outline effective and ineffective communication skills. Participants will be asked to share experiences in effective and non- effective communication and the results of miscommunication. The art and science of clear communication, active listening and collaboration will be discussed. Interpersonal communication skills such as effective listening and articulation of thought, staying present while communicating, resolving conflict and collaboration will be covered. Participants will then practice active listening. Through role play, video clips and audience participation, participants will be afforded the opportunity to demonstrate the communication skills they have available to them and to learn new techniques to expand their current capabilities. These techniques of communication will also be practiced as part of giving feedback to learners, staff and peers. By the end of the workshop participants will have the knowledge, skills and motivation to be effective communicators.

Effective communication is a crucial aspect of any patient-physician interaction, yet there is little attention paid to developing this important skill in medical students. Many medical schools have some formal training in communication skills in the pre-clinical years, although much of the emphasis is on taking appropriate histories from patients. These courses rarely address the unique perspective of communication with pediatric patients and their families. This skill is often not taught in any structured way in the clerkships. Furthermore, residents and faculty may not know how to properly teach these skills, especially in a busy work environment. Students then develop their communication skills from observing role models and through trial and error. The objectives are: 1. Participants will learn a model for a structured curriculum to teach students effective communication skills across the array of patient and family situations in pediatrics; 2. Participants will develop strategies to incorporate the curriculum in the pediatrics clerkship; 3. Participants will learn how to use simulated video-taped encounters in teaching communication skills. In this workshop, we will present a model curriculum developed to teach effective, age appropriate communication skills with pediatric patients and families. Videotaped simulated encounters with basic and challenging case scenarios will be presented. Participants will engage in discussions and role-playing to highlight how this curriculum teaches the learner various aspects of communication skills. The participant will also learn how to build on existing models of basic encounters to develop more advanced interpersonal skills specific to difficult situations. Through group problem solving, participants will explore ways to overcome obstacles and establish a communication skills curriculum or build on an existing one in their clerkship. Participants will receive reference materials as well as copies of the video taped scenarios for use in their home institution.

A4 Addressing the New LCME Standard for Service-Learning (While Helping to Address Health Disparities).
Presenters: Meryl McNeal, PhD, Jerold Woodhead, MD; Michael Barone, MD; David Levine, MD

LCME STANDARD IS-14-A: [Effective 7-1-08] Medical schools should make available sufficient opportunities for medical students to participate in service-learning activities, and should encourage and support student participation. One of the latest additions to the LCME standards is for service-learning. This workshop will help members develop their own Pediatrics service-learning activities either within the Pediatrics Clerkship or in other activities at your school. Of course, many service-learning activities directly impact the health and well-being of children. Medical students engaged in these activities are directly helping to address health disparities. Objectives: 1. Participants will discuss the new LCME Standard means for their schools, their communities, and the health of the participants served, potentially easing disparities; 2. Participants will analyze their own institution's capacity for service-learning, and discuss how to engage students and measure outcomes; 3. In consultation with workshop presenters, participants will develop their own ideas to be implemented back at their schools.

Workshop agenda

1. Introductions of workshop participants along with updating needs assessment.

2. Panelists will discuss local history and initiatives in service-learning

1. Michael Barone/Hopkins - collaboration with other health professions schools in nursing and public health. The current challenge and opportunity is to make this a scholarly endeavor for faculty and students;

2. Jerry Woodhead/Iowa - Service distinction track at graduation. Mobile Clinic developed and implemented by students and faculty from across the health care education spectrum (medicine, nursing, pharmacy, dentistry);

3. Meryl McNeal/Morehouse - Center for Service-Learning grant - small grants program and discussion of individual schools' projects through the Center.

3. Participants will break out into any of the three groups to develop an idea for bringing service-learning opportunities to their school.

Portfolios are widely used by artists and stockbrokers. Now, medical educators are seeing the value of portfolios as a part of their professional advancement, and the evidence in support of educator recognition is slowly emerging. Educational Portfolios(EPs) provide evidence of significant endeavors and achievements in teaching and learning. The AAMC, APA Scholars Program, APPD, and other professional organizations have worked to create a better understanding of academic portfolios specifically as they pertain to medical education as a life's work. This workshop will help Clerkship Directors learn about EPs, and give them examples that they can use at their own institutions. Participants may sumit their own EPs prior to the workshop for review and use during the workshop. The objectives are: 1) Describe the elements of a portfolio; 2) List the reasons a portfolio is important in effectively managing their career; 3) Critique sample promotion material. The workshop will be run by faculty from very different institutions, with levels of expertise from assistant professors to deans in faculty development and graduate medical education. After a brief presentation covering the first two objectives, we will have an interactive small group session with sample or submitted EPs to critique. Participants may submit their own EP prior to the workshop by e-mail to: SrivastavaR@health.missouri.edu, which we will incorporate in the workshop curriculum.

A6 The Scholarship of Application: When Service is Scholarship
Presenters: Linda Tewksbury, MD; Janice Hanson, PhD; Robin English, MD; Antoinette Spoto-Cannons, MD; Nasreen Talib, MD

Have you ever applied a peer-reviewed teaching method to your clerkship? Have you served on a committee charged with the task of restructuring an educational program or procedure? Did you know that such endeavors may be considered scholarship and count toward academic promotion? In 1990, Ernest Boyer outlined the ways in which traditional scholarship should extend beyond research to include the scholarship of teaching, application, integration, and discovery. The scholarship of application involves service and the use of knowledge to solve problems of individuals or society. As educators, the individuals we serve are medical students and our society is our educational institutions. Examples of applying knowledge in medical education include curriculum development, clerkship restructuring, and development and implementation of evaluation tools or new programs. The members of the Research and Scholarship Task force offer this workshop to help you turn your service, through the application of your educational expertise, into scholarship. Participants will be able to: (1) define the scholarship of application and the six characteristics of high-quality scholarship; (2) critically review examples of application in medical education for evidence of scholarship; (3) apply the characteristics of scholarship to one's own educational applications. Workshop facilitators will begin by reviewing the types of scholarship and characteristics of quality scholarship. The group will further define scholarship of application as it relates to medical education and brainstorm examples from the group. Participants will then work in small groups, each critically assessing an example of application in medical education for characteristics of scholarship. Workshop facilitators will next review resources (including MedEdPORTAL) for evaluation and dissemination of the scholarship of application with the larger group. Finally, participants will have the opportunity to document their service activities emphasizing the scholarly aspects and next steps for including in their educational portfolio.

"Oh my ears and whiskers, how late it's getting." said the Rabbit in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Finding quality teaching moments in a busy outpatient clinic or on a packed ward is challenging, but we propose that 60 seconds may be all it takes. The goal of this workshop is to instruct faculty on bringing the Five-Step Microskills (otherwise known as the One-Minute Preceptor) model, originally outlined by Neher et al. in 1992, to their home institution. By using an interactive format that includes small group discussions, audience participation and role plays, this hands-on workshop will provide participants with a broad understanding and practice using the model, as well as a structure with which to share the One-Minute Preceptor with their home institution. Participants will practice using the one-minute preceptor in small groups, and will develop a framework with which to establish a faculty development workshop at their home institution. There will be small group discussion, audience participation and role-play. References provided: 1. Teaching the One-Minute Preceptor: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Furney et al. , J Gen Intern Med 2001; 16:620-624.2. Faculty Development Seminars Based on the One-Minute Preceptor Improve Feedback in the Ambulatory Setting. Salerno et al. J Gen Intern Med 2002; 17:779-787. 3. Enhancing the Effectiveness of One-Minute Preceptor Faculty Development Workshops. Bowen et al. TLM 2006; 18:35-41.

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Workshop Descriptions: Saturday, April 5, 2008, Choice of Attending One Workshop, 8:30 am - 10:00 am

B1 Healthcare for the Disabled: Improving Physician Comfort and Competence
Presenters: Susan Mautone, MD; Gary Eddey, MD

The 54 million Americans with disabilities have been identified by Healthy People 2010 as a vulnerable population with documented health disparities. Many physicians feel ill-prepared to care for patients with severe developmental disabilities due to lack of knowledge of their medical and environmental needs and an inability to effectively communicate. At the conclusion of this workshop, participants will be able to 1) develop learning objectives addressing competencies in five domains necessary to provide optimal care for patients with disabilities; and 2) design and implement a competency-based learning experience at their home institution to enhance student comfort and competence in caring for this patient population. The Matheny Medical and Educational Center and UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School have for many years pursued avenues of introducing medical students to the "culture of disability" and to a set of competencies required to serve persons of that culture. Workshop leaders will describe a mandatory one-day experience during the third-year pediatric clerkship at the Matheny Medical and Educational Center, a special hospital affiliated with UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School, and will introduce participants to the barriers to quality health care and life satisfaction encountered by the disabled population. Working in small groups, workshop participants will first develop learning objectives addressing competencies in medical knowledge, patient care, interpersonal/communication skills, professionalism and systems-based practice necessary for providing quality health care for patients with disabilities. They will also identify resources in their institutions and/or communities with which they might partner to deliver experiential learning. After sharing small group results, participants will then design an educational method to achieve chosen objectives at their home institution. The workshop will conclude with review of a multimedia educational package produced at Matheny to teach medical students how to work effectively with patients who have developmental disabilities.

With so many students rotating through clerkships each year, it is inevitable that a situation will occur with a student where professionalism is being questioned. Sometimes it is difficult to identify and determine if the particular behavior was unprofessional or is a minor situation that can be excused. Evaluating students on their clinical performance or on a written exam can be straightforward and objective. Judging whether or not a student's behavior is considered unprofessional is subjective and often hard to identify and address. The workshop will provide a brief overview of COMSEP Curriculum's Competencies relating to professionalism. Participants and workshop leaders will share scenarios where professionalism is being questioned. The group will examine ways to identify and address unprofessional behavior from medical students. During the beginning of the workshop we will discuss in depth COMSEP Curriculum's Competencies relating to professionalism. We will go over scenarios and give examples of student violations. During the workshop, participants will be asked to come up with scenarios that they have encountered. As we discuss the scenarios we will focus on: 1.) Identify the unprofessional behavior; 2.) Develop strategy/process for addressing the situation efficiently and effectively; 3.) Define Coordinators role; reporting, documenting, facilitating, advising; 4.) Discuss remediation methods when non-professionalism occurs (e.g., counseling and/or documentation in permanent file); 5.) Discuss when it is appropriate to resolve the issue within the clerkship and when it is necessary to involve the Dean's office; 6.) Discuss mechanisms used to "track" student issues (e.g., Professionalism form or website) at their institution. Medical University of South Carolina and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will provide Flow Chart - describing the process how their institution handles Professionalism issues. The above institutions will also provide examples of their professionalism forms and scenarios of their most severe student situation. This workshop will be a great opportunity for the more "seasoned" coordinators to offer insight and prepare the "greener" coordinators for what is yet to come. Goal of the workshop: share ideas, brainstorm and if nothing else be a therapeutic session.

Many programs assign students to more than one clinical site for the Pediatrics clerkship. The LCME requires that the experience at separate sites be "comparable," but no definition of "comparability" is provided. The LCME also expects appropriate communication and coordination across sites, which also can present challenges. The objectives are: 1) Know the LCME guidelines regarding delivery of clerkships at multiple sites; 2) Derive a list of course components which must be identical or nearly so and which can differ more widely; 3) Identify challenges in administering a clerkship at multiple sites; 4) Describe strategies to overcome the challenges of administering a clerkship at multiple sites. Workshop participants will discuss scenarios (drafted by the facilitators and offered by participants) of potential conflict of comparability. During the workshop, participants will develop guidelines, ranking facets of a typical clerkship along a continuum from "may vary greatly" to "must be identical". Strategies for ensuring coordination and communication will be provided by the facilitators and the audience during discussion of the case scenarios.

B4 Mind the Gap: Developing Case-Based Materials for Training in Cross-Cultural Communication
Presenters: Elizabeth Stuart, MD, MSEd; Michele Long, MD; Becky Blankenburg, MD, MPH; Sylvia Bereknyei, MS

Effective communication skills are essential to providing culturally competent pediatric care. Case-based teaching strategies are ideal for preparing learners to work across cultural gaps between patients and physicians. This workshop will enable participants to design materials for case-based teaching in patient-centered, cross-cultural communication. By participating in the workshop, participants will be able to: 1) Describe an educational framework for skill-building in cross-cultural communication; 2) Transform real clinical cases for use in case-based teaching; 3) Outline an initial plan to evaluate the effectiveness of cross-cultural training activities. Since 2006, the pediatrics core clerkship at Stanford has included a standardized patient exercise (SPEx) in patient-centered communication. Cases for the SPEx are built on a model that combines several established frameworks for cross-cultural interviewing. While the SPEx involves student encounters with standardized patients, the case-building model can be applied to other teaching formats, for learners at any level of training. The workshop will open with a brief overview of the Stanford SPEx, including a description of the underlying educational framework and an outline of steps in the case-building model. Participants will work in facilitator-led small groups to apply the concepts introduced in the overview. Each participant will reflect on a personal experience where a gap between patient and physician perspectives became apparent. Participants will share these experiences in their small groups and select 1 or 2 to develop as teaching cases. Groups will use the SPEx model to fill in the features of selected cases. The large group will then reconvene to share case outlines and exchange feedback. We will end with a discussion of evaluation strategies for training in cross-cultural communication. We will provide a participant workbook with materials to facilitate ongoing case-development. Participants will leave the workshop with tools and concrete plans for case-based teaching in cross-cultural communication.

B5 Mirror, Mirror on the Wall…..Self-Assessment in the Health Professions.
Presenters: Stacey Bernstein, MD, FRCPC; Diane Moddemann, MD, M.Ed.,FRCPC; Anne Drover, MD, FRCPC

Self-assessment involves the ability to reflect on strengths and weaknesses in one's performance in order to identify learning needs and reinforce skills and behavior to improve performance. "Nowhere is self-directed learning and therefore self-assessment more essential than in the professions whose self-regulating autonomy is based on the competent exercise of self-assessment" (Gordon, 1991). Methods exist for faculty to teach and evaluate this critical skill in trainees. By the end of the workshop participants will 1. Review the essential components of effective feedback; 2. Define self assessment and describe the importance of self-assessment in the health professions; 3. Become familiar with the relative ranking model as one tool for providing feedback. Participants will have the opportunity to review the qualities of effective feedback. This dialogue will highlight "the double you" of self-assessment- How do You think that You did. The importance and the challenges of fostering and incorporating self-assessment into feedback will be discussed with reflection on the relevant medical education literature. Finally the relative ranking model will be presented. This very innovative model provides a framework for providing feedback that incorporates self-assessment. Participants will have an opportunity to apply and practice the model in an engaging, creative activity using mangoes! Methods employed in this highly interactive workshop will include small group discussion, audience participation and role play. There will be a focus on practical, relevant material that participants will be able to incorporate into their feedback tools for use in their home institutions.

Conflicts arise daily in the medical setting. Although conflict resolution and negotiation skills are essential to effective clinical practice, they are rarely taught explicitly. Additionally, curriculum in conflict resolution offers a practical venue to teach the core competencies of interpersonal and communication skills and professionalism. Drawing on expert source material from the fields of business and law, we have developed and implemented a seminar for teaching conflict resolution in the medical setting. This interactive, skills-based, train-the-trainer workshop aims to disseminate our conflict resolution seminar curriculum as well as to provide participants with tools to better identify and resolve conflict in the health care milieu. The workshop introduction will familiarize participants with fundamental conflict identification and classification schemes, and strategies for effective negotiation and resolution. Next, using narrative methods, participants will be challenged to reflect on their own practice and, in pairs, share recent conflicts in the workplace. Participants will then practice the use of conflict resolution techniques that relate directly to their identified episodes of conflict. Finally, participants will work in small groups to develop an action plan for implementation of similar seminars in their own institution at the clerkship, residency or faculty level. Workshop leaders will provide participants with a tool kit of resources and curricular material for implementing a conflict resolution seminar at their home institution.

At many institutions, a small number of faculty are identified as "the community people," and have responsibility for providing both medical students and residents with community-based medical education experiences. This workshop will examine successful examples of how such experiences can and have been integrated across medical student and resident education. Participants will determine the similarities and differences in the educational goals of the undifferentiated medical student versus the pediatric resident, and will work in small groups to develop sample cross-educational experiences for their own institutions. The objectives are: 1)To identify similarities and differences in educational goals for community experiences for medical students and residents; 2)To identify types of community experiences that can be integrated across both medical student and resident education; 3) To identify methods of integration of such experiences. Workshop presenters will offer examples of successful integration of medical student and pediatric resident community educational experiences. In small groups, workshop participants will identify reasonable objectives for medical students and residents, as well as practical methods of integration for both block and longitudinal experiences, didactics and community service opportunities. Participants will gain practical suggestions on how to implement such experiences in their home institutions.

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Workshop Descriptions: Saturday, April 5, 2008, Choice of Attending One Workshop, 10:30 am - 12:00 pm

C1 The Write Stuff: How to Create Compelling Letters of Recommendation
Presenters: Gwen McIntosh, MD; Lisa Martin, MD, MPH; Patricia Kokotailo, MD, MPH; Miriam Bar-on, MD

Each year, anxious medical students ask pediatric clerkship directors to write numerous letters of recommendation for residency applications. As advocates for medical students, it is essential that clerkship directors write letters that are clear, compelling and that convey helpful information to intern selection committees. Writing letters for outstanding students can be a relatively easy process. However, writing letters for students who are "average" or who have experienced difficulties is a more challenging task. Few clerkship directors have had training in the skill of writing effective letters of recommendation. In the absence of such training, the process of letter writing can consume an inordinate amount of time and result in letters that do not maximally support the student's application for residency. The goal of this workshop is to improve the clerkship director's ability to write a truthful, compelling and meaningful letter of recommendation in a more time efficient manner. The objectives are: 1) Recognize the common errors made in writing letters of recommendation; 2) Identify the critical letter content and language desired by intern selection committees; 3) Develop a method to improve the content of recommendation letters; 4) Identify strategies to improve efficiency in letter writing. In a highly interactive format with intern selection committee members, workshop participants will evaluate letters of recommendation to identify strong letters versus weak letters. Through dynamic discussion the group will identify the common errors committed when writing letters of recommendation (LOR). Attendees are invited to submit sample letters for review. After a brief presentation on the role of letters of recommendation in the intern selection process, the workshop will proceed with a group activity to distinguish the critical LOR content elements desired by intern selection committees. Using real life scenarios, workshop participants will create new methods to enhance the meaningful content of their LOR. Tools to improve the efficiency of letter writing will be presented and will be discussed by the attendees. The workshop will culminate in an exercise using the techniques discussed to compose a persuasive letter in a time efficient manner.

Broad use of the Computer-assisted Learning In Pediatrics Program (CLIPP) by pediatric clerkship directors has created an opportunity to develop new methods of computer-based student assessment, based on the learning objectives of the COMSEP curriculum. This workshop is intended to launch a new CLIPP Working Group focused on developing these student assessment tools. The objectives are to engage COMSEP members in a process leading to development of new assessment tools to employ in their clerkships. During this workshop we will engage a cross-section of clerkship directors in a discussion of principles of student assessment, including self-assessment and performance assessment, and their use related to computer-assisted instruction in general and the CLIPP program in particular. Workshop presenters will outline the distinction between these levels of assessment and their application within the CLIPP framework. Participants will discuss the cognitive domains to be assessed, based on Bloom's taxonomy - knowledge, comprehension, and application progressing to analysis, synthesis and evaluation. Finally, workshop presenters will review the concepts of validity and reliability of assessments. Participants will then break into smaller development teams, each facilitated by a workshop presenter. Each group will propose and design an assessment tool, paired to a specific cognitive domain to be assessed. Various assessment tools will be considered, including multiple choice questions with or without media, virtual patient assessment, and script concordance testing. Participants will then reconvene at the conclusion of the workshop to discuss the relative merits of the different assessment tools, and to plan for ongoing collaboration to develop the full range of assessment tools needed.

Recent listserv traffic and a COMSEP-wide survey (in progress) reveal significant differences across institutions regarding pediatric experiences in the preclinical curriculum. Many pediatric educators in COMSEP are motivated to create or expand such curriculum for their own institutions to better prepare students for the clerkship. Little has been written about medical student education in pediatrics before the traditional third year clerkship. At the end of the workshop, participants will be able to: 1) List the ideal medical knowledge and behaviors of a student starting on a pediatrics clinical clerkship relating to history taking, physical examination, oral and written communication, and clinical skills in pediatrics; 2) Create a curricular outline with learning outcomes, educational and assessment methods to help students at his/her home institution start the clerkship with these behaviors; 3) Identify barriers and at least one solution for helping to implement or update a preclinical educational experience in pediatrics. Workshop leaders will start by providing an overview of preclinical pediatric curricula that exist across schools, based on results from a COMSEP survey. Leaders will present resources for preclinical pediatric curricula to include what exists in four U.S. medical schools as well as the recent AAMC document on the longitudinal development of clinical skills. Attendees will then work in small groups to identify learning outcomes and a curricular map of a preclinical educational experience to consider for use in their home institution. Finally, workshop leaders and attendees will share experiences regarding advocating for, implementing, or expanding such preclinical curricula in their institutions. Workshop leaders will summarize the work of the group to post what is learned onto the COMSEP website as a curricular resource for members.

The ability to give feedback is one of the most fundamental skills in education. Giving effective feedback, however, can be difficult to do and difficult to teach. This interactive workshop will include a discussion of the literature on principles of effective feedback. Workshop attendees will practice feedback skills in small-group discussions and role-plays addressing common challenging scenarios. Participants will also have the opportunity to share their own challenges and successful practices with the group. By the end of the workshop, participants will understand the core principles behind effective feedback and will have skills and strategies for delivering feedback. Furthermore, attendees will have a model and resources for conducting faculty development at their home institutions.

Qualitative data analysis provides a way to move beyond general impressions to systematic identification of themes that can inform clerkship evaluation and contribute to scholarship. Clerkship evaluation forms, student evaluation forms and parent questionnaires in clinical settings often include open-ended questions and opportunities for comments that generate descriptions of clerkship activities, students' reflections or descriptions of students' performance. These descriptions are suitable for qualitative analysis. Workshop partipants will: 1) Identify sources of qualitative data that can help them evaluate the clerkship learning environment, gain insight into what students learn in the clerkship or better understand parents' responses to students in clinical settings. 2) Practice qualitative data analysis using raw data provided by the presenters. 3) Outline applications of qualitative data analysis to educational scholarship. This workshop will provide a brief introduction to qualitative research methodologies, provide an opportunity for participants to practice qualitative data analysis and review examples of educational scholarship using these methods. Working in small groups facilitated by workshop presenters, participants will identify potential sources of qualitative data in their clerkships, such as end-of-clerkship evaluation forms, evaluations of noon conferences, feedback forms and students' reflective writing. They will write educational research questions that could be studied by analyzing these data. After a brief introduction to qualitative data analysis, participants will do preliminary analysis of students' open-ended comments on an end-of-clerkship evaluation form, using sample data provided by workshop presenters. Small groups will then discuss how an analysis of these data describes student perceptions of the clerkship learning environment. Participants in small groups will then review examples of educational scholarship that use qualitative methods. Finally, participants will identify questions of educational research or scholarship that can be addressed in their own clerkships using qualitative research methods.

Clerkship directors provide central leadership in education that involves managing change, dealing with conflict and negotiating solutions with students, faculty and administration. Yet, most clerkship directors have had little leadership skill development that could provide tools to help them approach their leadership position in education. The Americian Academy of Pediatric's Pediatric Leadership Alliance (PLA) has been successfully conducting leadership training for AAP chapter pediatricians across the US. Leadership concepts and tools developed by the PLA and modified for clerkship directors by Dr. Deterding, based upon her experience in education and as a PLA member, will be introduced and applied. The participant will: 1. Discuss and apply the leadership model proposed by Kouzes and Posner; 2. Analyze the change process and apply tools for managing change to one of your issues; 3. Reflect on conflict and analyze your preferred style to handle conflict; 4. Create an action plan to address a leadership issue in your leadership position. The workshop will include a mix of didactics, individual work with tools, small group sharing and large group debriefings around the topic of leadership and managing change and conflict. Each participant completes the workshop ready to address at least one leadership issue in their role as a leader.

Is your clerkship idling rough? Do you need more pep to get it energized? Then come to this fun and interactive workshop to get your clerkship revved up! We will explore ways to improve productivity to make your clerkship a success and address alternative ways to re-work sticky aspects that may bog you down, including that most critical subject of student evaluation. By exchanging ideas and strategies in a brainstorming environment activity, you will gain new tools to integrate into your clerkship. We will offer suggestions and approaches to changing existing clerkship culture to better assist implementing these ideas.  Some of these include working with your director to identify systems based issues, orienting faculty to clerkship changes, and use of technology to streamline evaluations/work processes. We will review how technology can enhance the evaluation process of your clerkship by examining the use of electronic evaluation systems as well as involving students in the evaluation process. Participants will become familiar with the benefits of multi-faceted approach to obtaining evaluations and acquire ideas on how to incorporate these into the clerkship framework. This workshop may help participants develop renewed interest in their role as clerkship coordinator/administrator. By the end of the workshop, participants will understand the benefits of current technology as it relates to electronic evaluation processes, reporting data, and data storing/referencing. Since this all pertains to professional development, the final objective is that participants will understand the importance of their position as it relates to students, peers, and faculty and the vital, integral role they play that so often determines the success of their clerkship and program.