One of my interests is medical simulation and the writing of simulation cases. I have already written two related posts: Case Writing and Story Board Writing. I believe that simulation is a wonderful modality to engage learners, teach critical EM concepts, and keep the patients safe.
For the CORD Distinguished Educator’s Coaching Program, Dr. Gus Garmel has kindly offered to share his top 50 points to improve one’s speaking skills. These tips are great for anyone who plans to do public speaking. Last week, I posted his pearls #1-10.
“A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things, so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it. Now the skillful workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain-attic.” — Maria Konnikova 1
There is a very interesting Royal Society of the Arts (RSA) video featuring the psychologist Maria Konnikova (@mkonnikova), author of the book Mastermind: How to think like Sherlock Holmes. The video is an excellent description on the power of observation versus the cluttered mind.
Have you seen how some speakers can seemingly just give AMAZING talks? It actually takes a lot of hard work to make impactful talks look easy and effortless.
The CORD Academy for Scholarship in Education in Emergency Medicine recently has started the “Distinguished Educator’s Coaching Program” to help established educators improve their presentation skills. The concept of coaching for mastery is a hot topic, often discussed by Dr. Atul Gawande (surgeon at Brigham and Women’s and professor at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health).
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Is the physical exam a relic of the past, because our tools are relics of a prior era?It is important to do and teach a thorough physical exam. I cautioned against the overreliance on diagnostic testing in lieu of a physical exam, which can be initially burdensome and prolonged. But perhaps our difficulty with the physical exam is not the exam itself, but the tools that we have at our disposal to perform an exam, rather than the exam itself.
Last week I wrote about the important components in writing a simulation case. It is an exhausting list, but the thoroughness pays off.
The next big task is writing the actual case storyboard, which can be done in many ways. All revolve around the concept of action and reaction. The key to a well written simulation case is understanding the actions that the learners will take, the actions that they should take, the actions they shouldn’t take.
Yesterday I had the pleasure of sharing my thoughts to an enthusiastic crowd of UCSF preclinical medical students on one of my favorite topics “Technology and Social Media in Emergency Medicine”. This is the perfect target audience to teach about developing a workflow habit for keeping up with digital information, since they are only starting to grow their clinical knowledge foundation.
On the morning of my noon talk, I regretted not recruiting some fellow FOAMed (Free Open Access Meducation) supporters to email me their thoughts about why social media is here to stay in medical education. How great would it have been to share the collective thoughts of leaders in this area?
