[Laurie Lynch]

Hi Sara! Exciting time to graduate your first class!

We have a watercolor print of the medical school campus matted, with their name and years of residency inscribed on the mat by a local calligrapher. They receive a tie or scarf in our school colors with the department logo. They also receive 5×7 prints of the full department photo (residents and faculty), a photo of the chiefs with our PD and chair, and a photo of the chiefs alone.

Laurie

[Laurie Lynch]

Hi Courtney!

I’m sorry, I wish I had a good suggestion for alternate funding. But I can share my experience with the tuition grants from Depuy Synthes post-pandemic. Since the pandemic, they were still providing grants for AO Basic (as of last year anyway), but for an amount that just covers registration for the course. I suspect their overall funding allocation for courses has been reduced as well. They also ask that you submit your grant requests for the entire calendar year (not academic year) all together. That could be why many courses later in 2023 have already reached funding allocation. We were still able to get a grant for the May 2023 AO Basic course, but we submitted our request in August 2022. If the grant cycle is going to close so early in a calendar year, our residents are really going to have to plan far ahead for their conference scheduling!

Laurie

[Laurie Lynch]

Hello Lashun!

Our department does not charge as we get so few requests per year. Our Resident Affairs department did implement a charge a few years ago as some of the larger residencies in our institution receive many more requests. Our institution has a standard Final Summative letter for each graduate that is provided to an entity requesting verification. If the requesting entity won’t accept the Final Summative, then the fee is $75 to complete their documentation. Our Resident Affairs rep did say she has found a lot of state medical boards won’t accept the Final Summative. So rather than delay the graduate’s application, she will complete the medical board paperwork instead without implementing the fee.

Just a little more info to add to the conversation!

Laurie

[Laurie Lynch]

Hi Tammy!

We have a weekly conference, but just a monthly Grand Rounds, usually an invited speaker our chair invites from other programs. We also have our chief residents (total of 3) present on a topic of their choosing during the more difficult travel months of December, January and February. Most of our faculty are employed by our hospital partners, so it can be challenging for their schedules to get away. We start our conferences at 6:15 am so they can attend before they are required in the OR. The second hour of guest Grand Rounds can be case presentations, a second lecture, or a related bioskills lab with our invited speaker. After Chiefs’ Grand Rounds, the second hour is often a Business of Medicine topic.

It has been challenging to engage our faculty again in person following the months of virtual presentations. We offer Grand Rounds as an in-person event only. Our faculty have a certain percentage of attendance for Grand Rounds required, which is reviewed in their annual meeting with our department chair. Faculty receive CME credit. Some topics being presented also count toward their faculty development requirement and we advertise that opportunity.

We’ve worked on our advance communication of the Grand Rounds schedule so faculty can plan ahead. We send a save-the-date email one month in advance with the speaker name, short biography, and the title of the presentation. A week or two prior, we send a full agenda with the second hour content. This year we introduced a department app. The full schedule of Grand Rounds is listed there with dates, speaker names and photos, also save-the-date and agenda flyers attached as they become available.

We are always looking for improvements, so I am also interested to hear best practices from others!

Laurie

[Laurie Lynch]

Yes, it was sent last night about 6:30 pm EST from AAOS Assessments. Check your spam/junk folder. That’s where mine went!

Laurie

[Laurie Lynch]

Hi Jessica,

Here are the attachments . . . I hope!

Laurie

Attachments:

You must be logged in to view attached files.

[Laurie Lynch]

Hi Courtney,

I got the message but you may want to check your junk or spam folder. This was the address it came from. I am surprised our filters didn’t block it!

noreply=statuspage.io@notifications.statuspage.io

Laurie

[Laurie Lynch]

Hi Suzanne!

Our website updates are managed by our Webmaster, who is a member of our Communications department and sometimes assisted by our IT department. I am the “content expert” for our department, so responsible for notifying the Webmaster of any updates or changes we want to make. I collaborate with our program director and department chair if we are making any significant changes. The Website team sends out an email each August requesting annual updates. Website design (font, color, page design, etc) is consistent across the organization and each residency has the same template of page options we can use. The Webmaster does have veto over any content that is not in compliance with the Communications policy for our institution.

Here is the address for our website:  http://www.med.wmich.edu/node/109

Good luck with your campaign!

Laurie

[Laurie Lynch]

Hi Anna!

WMed has decided to go all virtual for residency interviews, based on the AAMC recommendation earlier this year. I also had an interesting discussion with a coordinator colleague here at WMed, who has a daughter interviewing for residency this year. Her daughter told her based on the AAMC recommendation, many of her classmates did not take out loans to afford to travel for in-person interviews, anticipating interviews would be virtual. That main loan window has closed for this year. That information factored into our decision for virtual as well.

We are waiting to hear what the Universal Offer Day recommendation will be, and see how much we need to adjust our virtual interview dates!

Laurie

[Laurie Lynch]

Hi Kierstin! We don’t have fixed score expectations, but we do use study hall weekly with the resident checking in at the administrative office and spending at least an hour in our conference room working with the AAOS ResStudy platform. The resident is required to leave OR/clinic in the afternoon for study hall. After a specified number of weeks, the resident takes an exam using ResStudy resources and is expected to meet an agreed-upon percentile of improvement to close out the study hall requirement.

Laurie

WMed – Kalamazoo

[Laurie Lynch]

Hi Jen! Western Michigan University Stryker School of Medicine (WMed) also offers diversity scholarships for visiting medical students who are underrepresented in medicine. Students apply online from the WMed website with a separate scholarship application, along with the VSLO application. The application process is managed by our visiting student application team for the medical school. Our department reviews all visiting student applications for acceptance but the application team manages all the documentation and onboarding process. Housing is offered (subject to availability) and there is a $1000 scholarship to cover the cost of travel, food and other expenses.

Laurie

[Laurie Lynch]

Hi Helen! I have a similar plaque on our wall. It is now known as the C. McCollister Evarts Resident Leadership Forum through AOA/CORD. Pre-COVID, AOA/CORD provided the nameplates of nominated residents who attended the Resident Leadership Forum in June. However, since the forum has gone virtual for COVID, we have not received nameplates for our residents who participated. If you follow this link https://www.aoassn.org/cord-program/ and look under Education and Events, there is more information about the Resident Leadership Forum. Hope this helps! Laurie

[Laurie Lynch]

Hi Beth! I just had a long message typed out with suggestions and my computer wiped them out! I revised half of our forms before July 1 and half after. We use the full Milestones in our evaluation forms and I’m happy to talk you through what I did if you want to connect. Feel free to email me at laurie.lynch@med.wmich.edu

Laurie

WMU Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine

[Laurie Lynch]

Hi Amy,

I’m responsible for sending updates and changes for our website to the webmaster, usually every August. I don’t work in the software though. Our Instagram account is new this year. The residents and I are collaborating on providing photos and information and building a content calendar. Communications policy for our institution requires someone from residency administration to manage and update the account and someone from leadership to review and approve captions and photos. I am handling the updates and our program director is reviewing content before it is uploaded.

Laurie Lynch

WMU School of Medicine

[Laurie Lynch]

No cell phone stipend at WMed. My department chair keeps campaigning for a department cell phone that the admin or I can take when we are working off-site. But so far no luck. Our residents do not receive a cell phone stipend, I don’t believe the faculty do.

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