165 - The Mentor Clinician Program: A Targeted Needs Assessment on Individualized Clinical Coaching for Pediatric Residents

Caitlin I. Toney, Rady Children's Hospital San Diego, Encinitas, CA, United States; Aarti Patel, University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, San Diego, CA, United States; Begem Lee, Rady Children's Hospital San Diego, San Diego, CA, United States; Kay Rhee, University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, San Diego, CA, United States; Mamata Sivagnanam, University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, San Diego, CA, United States; Shannon Kadlec, University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, Richmond, VA, United States; Chris Cannavino, University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, San Diego, CA, United States

Background: With increasing inpatient hospital volumes and workload, less continuity of patient care, frequent changes in team composition, increasing physician burnout, and decreasing professional satisfaction, there is a need for individualized clinical coaching and mentorship in residency training. However, few programs exist that provide longitudinal mentorship, direct observation, and individualized coaching to all pediatric trainees, not just struggling learners. The Mentor Clinician Program (MCP) for Residents is a clinical training curriculum modeled after a medical student program pairing humanistic medical educators with students to provide individualized mentoring/coaching during clerkships.

Objective: The purpose of this targeted needs assessment was to collect feedback and opinions of pediatric residents to determine key components of an individualized clinical coaching program for pediatric interns, focused on skills needed for the inpatient setting. The goal was to include both individualized clinical coaching and a longitudinal curriculum that focuses on humanism and empathy.

Design/Methods: The needs assessment asked residents to identify areas of focus for the program, e.g., clinical reasoning, family-centered rounding, EMR use and efficiency, documentation and handoff, compassionate communication, humanism, health equity, and non-evaluative direct observation/feedback. It also queried the ideal frequency and timing of coaching sessions during an academic year. The needs assessment was sent via email to 75 pediatric trainees and recent graduates.

Results: Surveys were completed by 49/75 potential respondents (65%): 43% PGY1, 30% PGY2, 16% PGY3, 9% PGY4, 2% PGY5 and included all tracks for pediatric residents. Respondents ranked the following topics in order of priority: EMR use, efficiency training, and note writing; clinical education including FCR, clinical reasoning, and physical exam skills; efficiency and triage tips; direct observation/feedback; mentorship/coaching; humanistic skills and training in compassionate communication and health equity. With regard to timing of sessions, respondents prioritized, in order: post-rounds, rounds, then pre-rounds. Most respondents listed 4x/year as ideal frequency of coaching sessions.

Conclusion(s): Participants strongly desired an individualized coaching program for pediatric residents. Current steps include implementation of this program during the current academic year, with structure, curriculum, and schedule designed based on the needs assessment results and lessons learned from a pilot which coached struggling learners on inpatient wards rotations.

Figure 1
Figure 1a. What is your current level of training?/Figure 1b. Select your current program.

Figure 2
Figure 2. If we had a Mentor Clinician Program for interns, what would you want it to include? (select all that apply)

Figure 3
Figure 3a. When would you want Mentor Clinician involvement to occur? (select all that apply)/Figure 3b. What is the ideal frequency of Mentor Clinician sessions per academic year?

Figure 1
Figure 1a. What is your current level of training?/Figure 1b. Select your current program.

Figure 2
Figure 2. If we had a Mentor Clinician Program for interns, what would you want it to include? (select all that apply)

Figure 3
Figure 3a. When would you want Mentor Clinician involvement to occur? (select all that apply)/Figure 3b. What is the ideal frequency of Mentor Clinician sessions per academic year?