Faculty Advancing Medical Education in Residency 2024 (FAMER)

How do we learn to think like doctors? The cognitive processes of collecting and analyzing clinical information in order to arrive at an accurate diagnosis seem intuitive to some, opaque to others, and can be difficult to describe or teach even for the most seasoned physicians. In this eCourse, we will review current theory about diagnostic reasoning, break it down into its constituent elements, and introduce multiple strategies for teaching diagnostic reasoning on the fly in the inpatient or outpatient setting.

WSU Graduate Medical Education programs and the Faculty Development Unit of the Office for Faculty Affairs and Continuing Professional Development design and deliver up-to-date content in medical education topics for practitioners working with residents. The aim of these sessions is to promote active learning and engagement, fostering a community of faculty as educators, and improving the overall health of our patients and communities.

Most research and educational efforts related to clinical reasoning have focused on diagnostic reasoning. Yet, there is growing recognition of the need for work in the realm of management reasoning, which Cook and colleagues have recently defined as “the process of making decisions about patient management, including choices about treatment, follow-up visits, further testing, and allocation of limited resources.” While making the correct diagnosis is critical, much of the clinician’s role can be defined by management reasoning, which can occur before and after diagnosis. Management reasoning plays a crucial role in patient outcomes and likely factors heavily in medical errors as well as low-value healthcare practices. Further, management reasoning entails the clinician’s application of clinical reasoning within the complex social milieu that defines modern medicine, as they must consider the limitations of their healthcare context and partner with patients in shared decision-making. During this interactive session, we will review what is currently known about management reasoning, comparing it to diagnostic reasoning. Participants will then engage with case studies to practice various teaching strategies for incorporating management reasoning into their teaching for learners at all levels.

WSU Graduate Medical Education programs and the Office of Faculty Affairs and Continuing Professional Development design and deliver up-to-date content in medical education topics for practitioners working with residents. The aim of these sessions is to promote active learning and engagement, fostering a community of faculty as educators, and improving the overall health of our patients and communities.

This session recording provides common reasons why learners repeatedly fail exams and provides a structured approach to supporting the learner in their test taking mechanics.

WSU Graduate Medical Education programs and the Office of Faculty Affairs and Continuing Professional Development design and deliver up-to-date content in medical education topics for practitioners working with residents. The aim of these sessions is to promote active learning and engagement, fostering a community of faculty as educators, and improving the overall health of our patients and communities.

Due to various factors, medical education has seen a decline in teaching at bedside. The idea of bedside teaching often elicits anxiety from both learners and educators alike, with concerns such as lack of efficiency, worry of embarrassing learners in front of patients, as well as self perceived weaknesses in physical exam skills. However, many studies show that there are benefits to bedside teaching to patients, educators, and learners alike.


This FAMER session recording will present a menu of options for efficiently increasing teaching at the bedside in both the inpatient and outpatient setting, and will also offer strategies to counter some of the barriers to bedside teaching that educators may face.

WSU Graduate Medical Education programs and the Office of Faculty Affairs and Continuing Professional Development design and deliver up-to-date content in medical education topics for practitioners working with residents. The aim of these sessions is to promote active learning and engagement, fostering a community of faculty as educators, and improving the overall health of our patients and communities.

The chalk talk (or white board mini lecture) is a classic modality for teaching in medical education. This recorded FAMER faculty development session highlights several chalk talk design and learner engagement strategies based on learning theory to elevate faculty members' delivery of chalk talks to increase residents' understanding and retention of material.

WSU Graduate Medical Education programs and the Office of Faculty Affairs and Continuing Professional Development design and deliver up-to-date content in medical education topics for practitioners working with residents. The aim of these sessions is to promote active learning and engagement, fostering a community of faculty as educators, and improving the overall health of our patients and communities.

Many graduate medical education programs are required by governing bodies like the ACGME to involve trainees in research or scholarship. Discovery and dissemination of new knowledge is also foundational to the advancement of the medical field. Incorporating residents into scholarship can be challenging due to their busy clinical schedules, variations in level of research training, as well as institutional differences in the availability of mentors and research support. WSU and Providence has sponsored the first annual Research Symposium as a venue for residents to disseminate the scholarly work that they have engaged in during their training thus far. The plenary session during this symposium is aimed to inspire junior trainees, as well as faculty and physicians, to engage in scholarly activity in the future.

WSU Graduate Medical Education programs and the Office of Faculty Affairs and Continuing Professional Development design and deliver up-to-date content in medical education topics for practitioners working with residents. The aim of these sessions is to promote active learning and engagement, fostering a community of faculty as educators, and improving the overall health of our patients and communities.

Mentorship is a key component for the development of physicians at all levels of training and independent practice. Clinical educators often serve as mentors to their trainees while also wearing mentee hats themselves. This recorded FAMER session will help faculty create their own mentorship networks and also build skills to become more effective mentors and mentees.

WSU Graduate Medical Education programs and the Office of Faculty Affairs and Continuing Professional Development design and deliver up-to-date content in medical education topics for practitioners working with residents. The aim of these sessions is to promote active learning and engagement, fostering a community of faculty as educators, and improving the overall health of our patients and communities.