The #PedsMatch21 Webinar Series: Coordinated Specialty-Level Communication During the Virtual Residency Application Cycle.

Problem: The landscape of pediatric medical education changed significantly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Fourth-year medical students applying to pediatric residency programs were particularly affected by alterations to traditional away rotations, the inability to conduct in-person visits, and resulting changes in ways of communicating with residency programs. Applicants were concerned about the virtual component of the application cycle and worried as to how to manage the COVID-19-related changes.

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.

National Pediatric Experience With Virtual Interviews: Lessons Learned and Future Recommendations.

The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic significantly impacted undergraduate and graduate medical education and created challenges that prevented a traditional approach to residency and fellowship recruitment and interviews. Early in the pandemic, the pediatric education community came together to support applicants and training programs and to foster an equitable recruitment process. We describe many of our community's innovations, including the use of virtual cafés to educate programs and highlight best practices for virtual recruitment and the use of regional webinars to highlight residency programs and provide information to applicants.

The Development, Implementation, and Evaluation of an Acute Otitis Media Education Website.

Objective: To develop, implement, and evaluate an acute otitis media (AOM) education website for clinician-educators.

Methods: We developed an education website following Kern's curriculum model.

Results: The website contained peer-reviewed content, educational objectives, library search pages to identify evidence-based resources, and a faculty toolbox with instructional and evaluation instruments.

Linguistic analysis of pediatric residency personal statements: gender differences.

Background: All US residency programs require applicants to submit personal statements. Prior studies showed gender differences in personal statement writing, which has implications for gender bias in the application process, but previous studies have not considered the dual influence of specialty-specific values on personal statement writing by applicants of each gender.

Objective: To understand gender differences in pediatric residency personal statements.

Key Factors in Clinical Competency Committee Members' Decisions Regarding Residents' Readiness to Serve as Supervisors: A National Study.

Purpose: Entrustment has become a popular assessment framework in recent years. Most research in this area has focused on how frontline assessors determine when a learner can be entrusted. However, less work has focused on how these entrustment decisions are made.

Teaching Pediatric Otoscopy Skills to Pediatric and Emergency Medicine Residents: A Cross-Institutional Study.

Objective: To evaluate a pediatric otoscopy curriculum with the use of outcome measures that included assessment of skills with real patients.

Methods: Thirty-three residents in an intervention group from 2 institutions received the curriculum. In the previous year, 21 residents in a nonintervention group did not receive the curriculum.

Thresholds and interpretations: How clinical competency committees identify pediatric residents with performance concerns.

Background: Clinical competency committee (CCC) identification of residents with performance concerns is critical for early intervention.

Methods: Program directors and 94 CCC members at 14 pediatric residency programs responded to a written survey prompt asking them to describe how they identify residents with performance concerns. Data was analyzed using thematic analysis.

Using educational prescriptions to teach medical students evidence-based medicine.

Purpose: To evaluate feasibility and impact of evidence-based medicine (EBM) educational prescriptions (EPs) in medical student clerkships.

Methods: Students answered clinical questions during clerkships using EPs, which guide learners through the "four As" of EBM. Epidemiology fellows graded EPs using a rubric.

Standardized Checklist for Otoscopy Performance Evaluation: A Validation Study of a Tool to Assess Pediatric Otoscopy Skills.

Introduction: Acute otitis media (AOM) is the most frequently diagnosed pediatric illness in the United States and the most common indication for antibiotic prescription. Skill in pediatric otoscopy is essential to correctly identify children with AOM. However, studies have found diagnostic inconsistency and significant overdiagnosis among practitioners.

Patient safety and quality improvement: a 'CLER' time to move beyond peripheral participation.

In the United States, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) has instituted a new program, the Clinical Learning Environment Review (CLER), that places focus in six important areas of the resident and fellow working and learning environment. Two of these areas are patient safety and quality improvement (QI). In their early CLER reviews of institutions housing ACGME-accredited training programs, ACGME has found that despite significant progress in patient safety and QI to date much work remains, especially when it comes to meaningful engagement of medical trainees in this work.

The Power of Collaboration: Experiences From the Educational Innovations Project and Implications for the Next Accreditation System.

Background: The Internal Medicine Educational Innovations Project (EIP) is a 10-year pilot project for innovating in accreditation, which involves annual reporting of information and less-restrictive requirements for a group of high-performing programs. The EIP program directors' experiences offer insight into the benefits and challenges of innovative approaches to accreditation as the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education transitions to the Next Accreditation System.

Objective: We assessed participating program directors' perceptions of the EIP at the midpoint of the project's 10-year life span.

Putting the pediatrics milestones into practice: a consensus roadmap and resource analysis.

The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education has partnered with member boards of the American Board of Medical Specialties to initiate the next steps in advancing competency-based assessment in residency programs. This initiative, known as the Milestone Project, is a paradigm shift from traditional assessment efforts and requires all pediatrics residency programs to report individual resident progression along a series of 4 to 5 developmental levels of performance, or milestones, for individual competencies every 6 months beginning in June 2014. The effort required to successfully make this shift is tremendous given the number of training programs, training institutions, and trainees.

PEARLs of Wisdom: Impact of a New Block Conference on Pediatrics Resident Attendance, Satisfaction, and Learning.

Background: Resident attendance and participation at didactic conferences is often limited owing to time demands. In 2010, University of Wisconsin-Madison pediatrics residency eliminated all noon conferences and implemented a new block format, PEARL (Pediatric Education and Active Resident Learning).

Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess whether changes in a conference structure improved resident attendance, distractibility, satisfaction, perception of clinical relevance, and connection.

Validation of an Evidence-Based Medicine Critically Appraised Topic Presentation Evaluation Tool (EBM C-PET).

Background: Competence in evidence-based medicine (EBM) is an important clinical skill. Pediatrics residents are expected to acquire competence in EBM during their education, yet few validated tools exist to assess residents' EBM skills.

Objective: We sought to develop a reliable tool to evaluate residents' EBM skills in the critical appraisal of a research article, the development of a written EBM critically appraised topic (CAT) synopsis, and a presentation of the findings to colleagues.

Academic medicine: a key partner in strengthening the primary care infrastructure via teaching health centers.

In the United States, a worsening shortage of primary care physicians, along with structural deficiencies in their training, threaten the primary care system that is essential to ensuring access to high-quality, cost-effective health care. Community health centers (CHCs) are an underused resource that could facilitate rapid expansion of the primary care workforce and simultaneously prepare trainees for 21st-century practice. The Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education (THCGME) program, currently funded by the Affordable Care Act, uses CHCs as training sites for primary-care-focused graduate medical education (GME).

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.