Communication, Outreach Bolster Collaboration Among Educators

With a little communication and creative approaches to student outreach, family medicine residency program directors and predoctoral program directors can stop "living in separate universes."

That was the message from two family medicine educators during the recent Society of Teachers of Family Medicine, or STFM, Northeast Region Meeting in Danvers, Mass. The educators -- Stan Kozakowski, M.D., director of the Hunterdon Medical Center Family Medicine Residency Program, Flemington, N.J., and Catherine Pipas, M.D., assistant dean for medical education at Dartmouth Medical School, Hanover, N.H. -- discussed barriers to communication and ideas for improving collaboration between residency and predoctoral program directors.

In 2005, Kozakowski surveyed residency and predoctoral program directors, finding that both groups shared student recruitment goals. But residency and predoctoral program directors said recruitment efforts faltered because they lacked time, were grappling with tight finances and had inadequate information on contacting their counterparts. Several thought that collaboration was a low priority for their counterparts, according to the survey.

For example, 65 percent of responding residency program directors in departments not directly administered by academic health centers, or AHCs, and 12 percent of directors of residencies directly administered by AHCs said they never have contact with predoctoral program directors.

Those issues can be overcome by sharing information and via mutual outreach efforts, said Kozakowski. For example, family medicine educators are working toward an easily accessible database that lists predoctoral and residency program director information. Such efforts can "start a conversation," said Kozakowski.

Conversations thus started can evolve into highly successful programs, said Pipas. She cited Dartmouth Medical School's Skills Night in 5 Acts program as an example.

The program grew from the school's single annual skills night into five skills and advising workshops that feature individual family medicine residency programs, giving each program a chance to highlight its strengths and introduce its faculty and residents to students on a one-to-one, interactive level. Ironically, the expansion developed when Health Resources and Services Administration grant money dried up.

"We had no money, so we had to get creative," said Pipas. She identified five dates that would not conflict with students' schedules, then contacted her seven affiliated family medicine program directors and asked if they were interested in serving as host to one of the workshops.

"They were jumping at the opportunity to come," Pipas said, adding that two workshops already have been scheduled for next year.

Under the collaborative effort, residency program directors choose the topic and provide speakers, career counselors and dinner. Dartmouth Medical School provides program coordination, basic advising materials, first- through fourth-year medical students for skills workshops, and third- and fourth-year students for career advising.

In its first year, Skills Night in 5 Acts increased faculty-student interactions from 600 to 750. It expanded the number of featured family medicine residency programs from one or two to five and it increased the number of skills taught from five to as many as eight.

"It's a win-win-win situation," said Pipas. The school can bring students to residency programs, which can encourage students to apply by highlighting the program's teaching and clinical expertise. Likewise, students can learn more about both family medicine and family medicine residency program options available to them.

"We have the data that show that the more exposure to family medicine -- to both family medicine residents and community physicians -- the more likely a student will enter family medicine," said Pipas. With its multiple workshop schedule, Skills Night in 5 Acts provides repeated exposure to family medicine's clinical expertise and to family physicians who can act as mentors.