Brand new year! Brand new month! Brand new reading ideas just for you, admittedly with a heavy surgical education focus this month.
I’ll get the one clinical piece and the moment of shameless self-promotion out of the way immediately. The research letter describing our CLABSI reduction program (for which we are now at 28 months and counting with NO CLABSIs in a burn unit) came out online just before Christmas. I am so proud of our team for their commitment to the safety of our patients.
If you are interested in wellness, particularly for residents, this work led by Arghavan Salles discusses stereotype perception and well-being in a single medical center. It also again validates that surgical residency often can be a different experience for women that it is for men, likely for very complex reasons. And, of course, it makes me question how we mitigate the impact of stereotypes.
I openly admit that my area of expertise within surgical education is not simulation. I’m proud to have friends and colleagues who are helping us identify research priorities in surgical simulation, and am grateful to the Simulation Committee of the ASE for driving this important work. Efforts like this demonstrate the relevance of the ASE for surgical education nationally and internationally.
We’ve completed this year’s round of residency interviews at our institution. Step 1 remains such a challenging issue, and the question remains- how can we efficiently and effectively screen the hundreds of applicants?
Current side reading: Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. It’s our January/ February book group selection, and I am completely smitten.