Multidisciplinary Faculty Research Articles

Navigating English for Specific Purposes (ESP) in Morocco: Challenges, Opportunities, and Technological Integration

This study examines the perceptions and experiences of law and humanities students at the multidisciplinary faculty of Taza, Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University, regarding English for Specific Purposes (ESP) education in Morocco. Using a mixed-methods approach, quantitative data from a survey of 130 students is complemented by qualitative insights from interviews and classroom observations. Findings reveal that 79% of respondents stress the need for ESP curricula tailored to their academic disciplines, with over 70% advocating for increased class frequency and interactive instructional methods. Challenges include technological limitations, such as compatibility issues with the Rosetta Stone application, and significant disparities in student proficiency levels, which complicate instruction in large, diverse classes. A gap in lesson adequacy is also noted between law and humanities students, underscoring the need for discipline-specific approaches. Recommendations include enhancing collaboration between language instructors and subject-matter experts, addressing logistical barriers, and improving technology integration. These measures aim to strengthen ESP programs in Morocco, equipping students with the skills needed for academic and professional success.

The Center for Health Outcomes in Medicine Scholarship and Service (HOMES): Fostering and Supporting Physician-Initiated Research

Abstract Problem The U.S. physician scholar workforce, currently comprising less than 1.5% of U.S. physicians, continues to decrease, threatening national status as a global biomedical research leader. Academic medical center (AMC) trends away from tenure-track physician faculty appointments toward clinical faculty appointments have contributed to this decrease, but AMCs have limited strategies to equip clinical faculty to conduct research. Infrastructure fostering clinical faculty research may establish new mechanisms for expanding physician scholar workforce and supporting academic goals of clinical faculty. This article presents one such model, the Center for Health Outcomes in Medicine Scholarship and Service (HOMES), from the Department of Internal Medicine, The Ohio State University College of Medicine. Approach Established in 2019, HOMES provides research infrastructure, support, and mentorship tailored to clinical faculty needs. Multidisciplinary core faculty support research across 5 cores: clinical networks, biostatistics and secondary data, qualitative methods, mixed methods, and research ethics. HOMES services include research consultation, mentorship, microgrants, a training toolkit, and symposia. Outcomes In 4 years, HOMES supported 50 faculty on 99 projects. Forty-five (90%) of these faculty have reported scholarly output, including 127 national presentations, authorship on 41 peer-reviewed articles, and 53 grant submissions. Forty HOMES-supported grant submissions have received funding, and 4 HOMES-supported physicians in training have pursued or plan to pursue AMC research careers. Next Steps HOMES has fostered scholarly productivity among AMC physicians, competitive grant applications, and research focus among physicians in training. As demand for HOMES services increases, HOMES will prioritize projects based on their innovation and research skill development potential. Academic medical centers can apply HOMES lessons through fostering clinical faculty collaboration with multidisciplinary research teams and increasing research training opportunities for residents and fellows. National expansion of funding opportunities dedicated to building biomedical research capacity and expertise among clinical faculty can facilitate sustainable scaling of HOMES-like models.

State of Lung Cancer in Egypt: Moving Towards Improved Guidelines for Prevention, Screening, Treatment, and Clinical Care Programs

Lung cancer remains a leading cause of cancer-related mortality globally and presents significant challenges in Egypt. In 2023, the first annual meeting of the Thoracic Oncology Multidisciplinary Faculty, organized by the Egyptian Cancer Research Network and the Egyptian Society of Respiratory Neoplasms, was held in Cairo, Egypt. The meeting aimed to address gaps in lung cancer management across Egypt and the broader Middle East and North Africa region. The discussions focused on the challenges posed by NSCLC and SCLC and emphasized the need for enhanced prevention, early detection, and treatment strategies. Key areas of concern include limited access to advanced diagnostics, such as comprehensive genomic profiling, and the underutilization of targeted therapies and immunotherapies, mainly owing to financial barriers. The meeting highlighted the importance of strengthening lung cancer screening programs, improving smoking cessation efforts, and addressing environmental risk factors like air pollution. Furthermore, the event underscored the need for greater research and collaboration, particularly in areas like precision oncology. The conference concluded with strategic recommendations to improve lung cancer prevention, screening, and treatment, aligning Egypt’s lung cancer care with global advancements and ensuring equitable access to cutting-edge therapies.

Bringing back the core concepts of physiology in an advanced medical school senior elective.

Integrating physiology core concepts into the clinical years of medical education has been challenging despite efforts. This article describes a fourth-year medical school elective, Advanced Physiology in Critical Care Medicine, that focused on integrating physiology core concepts in a case-based learning approach. The elective used interdisciplinary faculty in a virtual forum. Senior students were asked to generate mechanism of disease (MOD) maps, highlight the physiology core concepts associated with paper cases of critically ill patients, and discuss with faculty the relevance of the underlying basic science. The weekly footprint consisted of a student-led session presenting MOD maps for three cases, which examined aspects of core physiology concepts, and, later in the same week, student presentation of order sets for the management of the cases. Students ended the 4-wk elective with a mini-grand rounds presentation on a topic of their choice incorporating the core concept paradigm. Student perception data and faculty reflections of the elective course are included. Student data and faculty observations suggest that students appreciate and can apply physiological core concepts to patient care. Faculty experience in the course suggests that this senior elective helped them better approach all preclinical teaching with the Core Concepts framework in mind.NEW & NOTEWORTHY This article presents an innovative approach to integration of physiology core concepts with clinical management using cases of critically ill patients in an online senior elective for medical students. It uses a multidisciplinary faculty conducting a course primarily using case-based learning led by student presentations and discussions of concept maps and order sets.

Nephrology Partnership for Advancing Technology in Healthcare (N-PATH) Erasmus+ project: The Renal Expert in Vascular Access (REVAC) module.

The Renal Expert in Vascular Access (REVAC) is one of the four modules of the Nephrology Partnership for Advancing Technology in Healthcare (N-PATH) project, the first European-wide advanced training course in diagnostics and interventional nephrology, funded by Erasmus+ Knowledge Alliance, a European Commission program. The N-PATH primary goal was to train 40 young European nephrologists in both theoretical knowledge and practical skills related to interventional nephrology. The REVAC module focused on the crucial aspects of vascular access (VA) care in nephrology practice, as a complementary training path to the actual residency program. The aim was to provide nephrology fellows with comprehensive knowledge and skills related to VA management. The methodology was based on face-to-face meetings and online learning, modern facilities, experienced tutors, cutting edge simulators, augmented reality tools by means of a multidisciplinary international faculty and hands-on-courses. A feedback survey reported the experience of fellows who attended the REVAC module, confirming the positive impact on their ongoing nephrology training. We are confident that this project will revitalize their nephrology careers and will help training the next generation of nephrologists; they will be able to manage VA needs with the help of multi-disciplinary teams to safely optimize the care of hemodialysis patients.

Perspectives of Multidisciplinary Faculty on the Design of Nursing Informatics Curriculum.

This study aimed to understand the experiences and challenges of interdisciplinary collaboration in nursing informatics curriculum design. The study was conducted from 9-20 August 2023 with 14 multidisciplinary faculty members. Surveys and interviews focused on perceptions of interdisciplinary communication, importance of collaboration, challenges encountered, and training needs to identify barriers to effective curriculum development. Participation was voluntary and anonymous. The results revealed significant challenges, including differences in terminology and thought processes between disciplines, role ambiguity, and cultural/methodological differences. The results of the study highlight the importance of collaboration, which is critical to the development of an effective and cohesive nursing informatics curriculum.

Paradigm Shift in Higher Education: National Education Policy (NEP 2020)

Education plays a crucial role in human development, serving the acquisition of knowledge and skills. The landscape of education in India has transformed, since independence. This transformation has touched upon various facets of education, reshaping its structure and priorities. The National Education Policy of 1986, along with a revised version in 1992, has been an integral part of educational discourse. The unveiling of the National Education Policy (NEP) in 2020 heralds a fresh vision for education in India. NEP 2020 envisions an education system starting from pre-primary to various aspects of higher education. The perspective of NEP 2020 is to cater to the unique capabilities of every student and their holistic development. NEP 2020 has opened doors to many initiatives for higher education that will impart quality education. NEP 2020 has proposed advancement in higher education: moving towards interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary education, faculty and institutional autonomy, various measures to enhance student experiences, formation of a single regulatory body for governing higher education, measures to include a large number of student enrolment by the means of online education and distance education. The researcher will highlight various recommendations of NEP 2020 concerning various suggestions enlisted in the policy for Higher education. The researcher will shed light on initiatives for multidisciplinary education, optimal learning environment, internationalization of higher education, equity and inclusion in higher education, and vocational education with effect from NEP 2020. The paper emphasizes the significant changes in higher education institutions, including the creation of multidisciplinary universities, colleges, and programs.

A Multidisciplinary Curriculum to Standardize Chest Procedures Training for Trainees in General Surgery, Emergency Medicine, and Critical Care.

Critical care, emergency medicine, and surgical trainees frequently perform surgical and Seldinger-technique tube thoracostomy, thoracentesis, and thoracic ultrasound. However, approaches to teaching these skills are highly heterogeneous. Over 10 years, we have developed a standardized, multidisciplinary curriculum to teach these procedures. Emergency medicine residents, surgical residents, and critical care fellows, all in the first year of their respective programs, underwent training in surgical and Seldinger chest tube placement and securement, thoracentesis, and thoracic ultrasound. The curriculum included preworkshop instructional videos and 45-minute in-person practice stations (3.5 hours total). Sessions were co-led by faculty from emergency medicine, thoracic surgery, and pulmonary/critical care who performed real-time formative assessment with standardized procedural steps. Postcourse surveys assessed learners' confidence before versus after the workshop in each procedure, learners' evaluations of faculty by station and specialty, and the workshop overall. One hundred twenty-three trainees completed course evaluations, demonstrating stable and positive responses from learners of different backgrounds taught by a multidisciplinary group of instructors, as well as statistically significant improvement in learner confidence in each procedure. Over time, we have made incremental changes to our curriculum based on feedback from instructors and learners. We have developed a unique curriculum designed, revised, and taught by a multidisciplinary faculty over many years to teach a unified approach to the performance of common chest procedures to surgical, emergency medicine, and critical care trainees. Our curriculum can be readily adapted to the needs of institutions that desire a standardized, multidisciplinary approach to thoracic procedural education.

Mentor communication skills training: development, feasibility, and preliminary efficacy

BackgroundMentoring is vital to career development in academic medicine, and communication underlies all aspects of the mentoring relationship. Although training research mentors has been shown to be effective, few academic medicine faculties have received training in how to mentor. The investigators developed a novel intervention, the Mentor Communication Skills Training for Oncology Faculty (“Comskil Mentor Training”) and examined feasibility and preliminary efficacy.MethodsThe study was a single arm pre-post intervention design. The intervention (Comskil Mentor Training) was offered in one virtual 3-hour session and included a didactic lecture with exemplary skill demonstration videos, facilitator-led small group role plays with trained actors, and evaluation. 19 faculty members from 12 departments participated in the training.ResultsAll participants completed the training. Overall, the training was rated favorably, with more than 80% of participants indicating that they “agreed” or “strongly agreed” with training evaluation. From pre- to post-training, significant improvement was seen in participants’ overall self-efficacy to communicate with mentees, as well as participants’ overall use of communication skills and mentoring-specific language.ConclusionsOur findings support the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of a virtually delivered experiential mentor communication skills training program for multidisciplinary clinical and research faculty in oncology.

The Power of Faculty Development: The Impact on Teaching a Procedural Skill Framework.

Teaching outpatient procedures is a skill often overlooked in faculty development. This oversight may lead to faculty employing a haphazard approach. Competency in procedural skills is inherent, and acquiring proficiency in procedural skills is necessary across all medical specialties, with some centers moving towarda blended simulation-based approach rather than the traditional Halstedian "see one, do one, teach one" mantra. While both formats have their pros and cons, they share the unifying concept of performance-based assessments and a standardized method for teaching procedures, which has typically been lacking a formal framework. This study aimed to implement and evaluate the impact of teaching an educational technique in a multidisciplinary faculty education workshop about the Sawyer framework for psychomotor skill acquisition. An interactive 90-minute workshop through the Uniformed Services University Faculty Development Program was developed and presented from February 2021 to October 2023 at multiple military treatment facilities. Participants enrolled in the workshop either by online registration or by walking in on the day of the workshop. A postworkshop survey was collected voluntarily. Through the survey, participants self-evaluated their current teaching strategy and made changes to their future strategy based on the framework they learned during the workshop. This was a mixed methods approachwith quantitative survey data that were analyzed using Microsoft Excel (Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA) and qualitative data through thematic analysis using a constructivist inductive approach. There were 52 sessions with a total of 570 participants across 22 unique specialties. The response rate was 50%. Before the workshop, 22% of responding participants had no teaching strategy, and 49% had a partial but not explicit strategy for teaching. After the workshop, 89% of respondents answered that they would either implement a new or modify an existing strategy. Ninety-three percent of respondents reported that the Sawyer method was applicable to their future teaching. The overall themes from participants were that this procedural framework allowed for personal improvement in clear communication, individualized learner-centered teaching, and improved intentionality of teaching procedures. Almost two-thirds of the faculty did not have a formal teaching method before this course, which is consistent with current data. Implementing a standardized framework for teaching procedures through faculty development workshops for multidisciplinary medical faculty educators can improve the educational quality of procedural skills.

Growing a Discipline

A variety of competing pedagogical orientations have accompanied the evolution of university-based Interior Design teaching. A review of relevant literature indicates that a range of pedagogical models are available, each rooted in a distinct design discipline such as architecture and industrial design. A new undergraduate Interior Design program is described, in order to demonstrate an approach to integrating theory and practice. Diverse teaching influences on the development of a course of study in Interior Design in the context of an established multi-disciplinary design faculty are illustrated. The new program’s pedagogical approach is demonstrated through an examination of the first and second year studio subjects. The paper concludes with a summary of the program’s strengths and weaknesses, and suggestions are made to promote ways to integrate theory and practice through broadening the theoretical discourse that could allow Interior Design to be explored through other relevant and critical social disciplines.

Pilot study of interprofessional learning and engagement in culturally responsive nutrition simulations

BackgroundThis single-group pre-/post-test quantitative pilot study with prelicensure nursing students (n = 6) used multi-disciplinary and multi-ethnic faculty to develop culturally responsive learning scenarios on nutritional care for diverse patients experiencing type 2 diabetes, anemia, and irritable bowel syndrome. MethodsInterprofessionaly designed nutrition simulations used standardized patients, a pre-event nutrition concepts worksheet, pre-briefing, anonymized pre-/post-test, data collection, instructor-supervised feedback by trained patient actors to students, and PEARLs debriefing. SIM interaction diverse learning practices were measured by the NLN's EPQ-C tool. ResultsInterprofessional team-developed culturally responsive nutrition simulations enhanced factual and cultural quality of scenarios with perspectives from nursing, dietetics, social work, simulation science, and multicultural backgrounds. Trained actors as patients added realism and depth to student simulation. ConclusionOffering multiple authentic, active learning experiences on nutritional nursing care is possible in a single half-day format.

138 Supporting Early-Career Faculty Grant Proposals through Narrative Development Training: A Proposal Narrative Development Program for Early-Career Faculty

OBJECTIVES/GOALS: Faculty pursuing their first independent research grants often struggle to express their ideas in a concise, compelling way. Thus, we developed the “Research and Scholarship Storytelling Bootcamp” to equip these faculty with narrative development skills applicable across disciplines and mechanisms. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: Early-career researchers who were preparing either their first NIH R-series application or an NSF CAREER award proposal were invited to participate. Enrollment was limited to 20 participants. Those accepted learned the “And-But-Therefore” narrative framework by reading a short book and attending 4 synchronous lectures. Between sessions, they applied the framework by drafting abstracts and Specific Aims/Project Summary documents and reviewing their fellow participants’ work. We assessed participants' comfort with storytelling, perceptions of preparedness, and confidence regarding funding chances, before and after the program using a visual analog scale (max 100 points) and calculated Cohen’s d to evaluate the effect size of any changes. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: Thirty people applied for 20 slots, indicating strong demand. Eleven NIH applicants and 9 NSF applicants enrolled. Before the program, participants rated their comfort with storytelling at 45 ± 25, their preparedness at 39 ± 24, and their funding confidence at 39 ± 26. Nine total participants completed all sessions, assignments, and surveys. Completion rates were comparable for NIH- and NSF-targeting participants. After the program, completing participants reported increases in their comfort with storytelling (68 ± 14 post vs 32 ± 20 pre, d = 1.46), perceived preparedness (64 ± 20 post vs 48 ± 26 pre, d=0.58), and confidence in funding chances (56 ± 19 post vs 40 ± 27 pre, d=0.75). DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE: This program was the first of its kind for multidisciplinary early-career faculty at our institution. The program successfully achieved its objectives for those who completed all activities. Future analysis of survey comments and proposal success rates will reveal barriers to full program engagement and opportunities for further training.

Increasing pediatric radiation oncology capacity in sub-saharan Africa using technology: a pilot of a pediatric radiation oncology virtual training course

BackgroundThe shortage of skilled healthcare professionals in pediatric oncology and the limited access to training programs remain significant challenges in Nigeria and sub-Saharan Africa. The the Pediatric Radiation Oncology (Virtual) Course, ‘PedROC’ project aims to contribute to improving pediatric cancer outcomes in Nigeria by increasing the capacity of radiation oncology professionals. To address the gap in access to pediatric radiation oncology professional development, the PedROC project was created, harnessing technology to improve radiation oncology training via a curriculum delivered through web-conferencing. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of the PedROC pilot in enhancing the capacity, confidence, and skill of radiation oncologists in decision-making, prescribing, and treatment planning of radiotherapy for children diagnosed with cancer.MethodsA multidisciplinary faculty of specialists in radiation oncology, pediatric oncology, oncology nursing, radiation therapy technology, and medical physics collaborated to identify the key learning needs in pediatric radiation oncology in the country. The team collaborated to develop a comprehensive curriculum covering the most common pediatric cancers in sub-Saharan Africa for the training program. The training course was conducted over two days, delivering twenty-four half-hour sessions for a total of 12 h, from July 31 to August 01, 2021.ResultsAnalysis of pre and post - training surveys showed a significant increase in self-reported confidence measures across all domains among radiation oncologists. The program successfully improved participants’ knowledge and confidence levels in managing common pediatric cancers using radiotherapy, particularly addressing radiotherapy-specific issues such as appropriate dose, target volume delineation, treatment planning, dose constraints, and plan evaluation.ConclusionThe PedROC pilot showed the efficacy of this model in enhancing the capacity and confidence of radiation oncology professionals involved in the treatment of pediatric cancer. The findings indicate that technology holds significant potential to increase pediatric radiation oncology capacity in Africa, ensuring improved access to proper treatment and ultimately improving pediatric cancer outcomes.

In search of breadth and depth: the origin story of a multidisciplinary faculty of management

Purpose This paper aims to use the origin story of Dalhousie’s Faculty of Management as a foil for unpacking the tensions between deep disciplinary specialization and liberal education in business schools in Canada and the USA. Ultimately, the paper reveals that those tensions are not irreconcilable, and that through the fortunes of historical contingencies and deliberate decision-taking, a faculty can embrace the benefits of both breadth and depth. Design/methodology/approach The paper proposes a critical organizational history of management education through a case study. By drawing on secondary literature and archival sources, the authors focus on moments in business education, such as the founding of the Wharton School of Business, the release of the Carnegie and Ford Reports and the trend towards increased specialization to situate a case study of Dalhousie University’s Faculty of Management. Findings The authors find that the evolution of business education in North America from its broad, liberal origins towards narrow, specialization has come at a cost to some of the benefits of business and management education. An alternative approach, one reflected in the design of Dalhousie’s Faculty of Management, its programme offerings and its interconnection with other disciplines, enables the advantages of deep disciplinarity to co-exist (and cross-inform) with the advantages of liberal approach to knowledges. Originality/value The Dalhousie model offers business schools an example of a faculty that balances the rich insights of liberal interdisciplinarity with the need for sophisticated approaches to more granular, often disciplinary, topics. In addition, the paper offers the story of a multidisciplinary management faculty, some explanation for how that faculty was maintained despite pressures towards specialization; and in doing so, contributes to the limited historical research of management education, particularly in Canada, post-2000.

Virtual faculty development program in bioethics evaluated by Kirkpatrick model: A unique opportunity.

With a shortage of teachers willing to deliver bioethics courses, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, faculty development in bioethics has become increasingly important for capacity building in medical education. This study aims to determine the impact of an online course on faculty development in teaching bioethics. This quasi-experimental study involved twenty-six multidisciplinary faculty members who participated in an online bioethics course from January 4th to 22nd, 2022. Kirkpatrick's evaluation model was used to assess the participants' reactions, knowledge, and behavior, using online questionnaires and direct observation by expert faculty. SPSS 25 was used for data analysis. The Kirkpatrick evaluation model showed that the course was highly satisfactory in terms of content and delivery, with a significant improvement in clinical faculty's knowledge from pre-test to post-test (14.18 ± 1.601 to 16 ± 2.049, p < 0.05). The participants demonstrated an improved range of teaching and learning methods. The online course on bioethics successfully improved the clinical faculty's knowledge and overall approach to teaching bioethics. These findings highlight the importance of well-constructed faculty development programs, particularly during times of resource constraint such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

Longer-term outcomes of medicine and pharmacy students at Cardiff University after undergraduate therapeutics and prescribing interprofessional education

Background: Studies have reported students’ satisfaction with and learning from undergraduate interprofessional education (IPE). However, there is insufficient research reporting on any longer-term effects of IPE. The objective is to assess the longer-term impact of learning by 3rd/4th year medical and pharmacy students 12-24 months after a therapeutics/prescribing IPE session. Methods: Semi-structured interview transcriptions were explored inductively using thematical analysis, and deductively by using the Modified Kirkpatrick’s evaluation model. Exactly 34 interviews were conducted. Results: Inductively, six themes were identified: preparedness; students as learners and teachers; knowledge/skills development; application of learning; session value; and suggestions for change. Deductively, participants found the session enjoyable and interesting (level 1), had modified attitudes of peers (level 2a), acquired knowledge and skills (level 2b), and, those in employment, provided examples of behavioural change (level 3). No organisational change (level 4) or improved patient outcomes (level 5) were reported. Conclusion: Both medical and pharmacy participants were able to recall a therapeutic/prescribing IPE session that took place 12-24 months earlier. Participants emphasised the usefulness of interacting with peers, increasing their understanding of each others’ roles, improving communication skills and applying learning within practice. Those developing IPE should consider early consistent delivery, utilise multidisciplinary faculty members and ensure an appropriate student knowledge gap.

An Evaluation of the Most Effective Learning Environments among Moroccan University Learners: Towards Learning that is Fit for Digital Natives

The surrounding conditions of COVID 19 have reconsidered issues vis-à-vis the most effective learning environments, namely online, blended, and face-to-face learning. Today, higher education institutions are in dire need to consider different platforms of learning, especially in light of the new technological revolution and social networking sites (Garison and Vaughan, 2008). Morocco, like many other countries, has faced numerous challenges in terms of the effective use of distance and blended learning environments. Notwithstanding the general satisfaction of decision makers with the experience of these environments, an ongoing scepticism has occupied the attention of many practitioners and researchers regarding the adoption of online and blended learning contexts. This paper purports to shed light on Moroccan university learners’ performance in the three learning environments: face-to-face, blended and online. The study therefore compared between six modules: Paragraph writing and Grammar I (which were completely taught online), Composition I and Grammar II (which were taught using blended learning method), and Composition II and Grammar III (which were taught face-to-face). Around 84 students from the Multidisciplinary Faculty of Nador took part in the present study. The one-way ANOVA analysis has revealed that learners’ performance in faceto-face learning is the highest, followed by blended and online learning successively. The study concluded with a number of implications for university students, professors and decision makers.

Skills, Not Just Knowledge: Infectious Diseases Fellows' Recommendations Regarding Antimicrobial Stewardship Training.

Antimicrobial stewardship (AS) is an important topic in infectious diseases (ID) training, yet many ID fellowships lack formal training, and little is known about fellows' learning preferences. We conducted 24 in-depth interviews with ID fellows across the United States during 2018 and 2019 to explore their experiences with and preferences for AS education during fellowship. Interviews were transcribed, deidentified, and analyzed to identify themes. Fellows had variable exposure to AS before and during fellowship, which impacted their knowledge about and attitude toward stewardship as a career; however, all fellows expressed the importance of learning general stewardship principles during fellowship. Some fellows' training included mandatory stewardship lectures and/or rotations, but most fellows felt their primary stewardship learning occurred through informal experiences in the clinical setting, such as holding the antimicrobial approval pager. Fellows expressed a preference for a standardized, structured curriculum that included in-person practical, interactive discussions with multidisciplinary faculty along with the opportunity to practice and apply their skills; however, they emphasized that time needed to be set aside for those educational activities. Although they wanted to learn the evidence and rationale for stewardship recommendations, they especially wanted training in and feedback on how to communicate stewardship recommendations to other health professionals, particularly in the setting of conflict. ID fellows believe that standardized AS curricula should be included in their fellowship training, and they prefer structured, practical, and interactive learning experiences.

Development of a palliative care lecture series for hematology-oncology fellows.

e24112 Background: Many major organizations endorse provision of palliative care (PC) services for patients with advanced cancers from both oncologists and PC specialists. While ACGME has outlined core PC competencies, PC education during hematology-oncology (HO) fellowship is highly variable, and many fellows feel inadequately trained. We assessed whether incorporation of a PC lecture series could improve fellows’ self-perceived preparedness in basic PC skills. Methods: In this educational quality improvement initiative, current HO fellows at an NCI-designated cancer center received lectures on PC topics. Members of both the HO and hospice and palliative medicine fellowship programs met to discuss key components of a PC curriculum and identify available experts. Seven multidisciplinary faculty members delivered eight one-hour video-recorded virtual lectures to HO fellows over a three-month period. Lecture videos remained available online for later viewing in the event of fellow absences. Within a few weeks both pre- and post-lecture series, HO fellows completed surveys addressing their level of preparedness on a 5-point scale (from 1-not at all prepared to 5-extremely prepared) in performing several key skills. Two-tailed paired t-tests were performed to analyze pre/post changes in fellows’ level of preparedness. Results: Eleven fellows participated in the PC lecture series. Fellows’ level of preparedness increased across several PC topics (Table). The greatest increases were in creating a survivorship plan, converting from one opioid to another, and managing pain in a patient at risk for a substance use disorder. Fellows ranked individual lectures as very helpful to their learning, especially lectures on management of GI symptoms (4.9 +/- 0.3), pain management with opioids (4.8 +/- 0.4), and communication (4.5 +/- 0.5). Conclusions: Incorporation of a structured PC didactics series into HO fellowship is feasible, perceived as very useful, and associated with increased self-perceived preparedness. While more longitudinal and hands-on PC experience would likely promote HO fellows’ PC skills more deeply and durably, dedicated PC lectures are an important adjunctive component that can be easily incorporated into HO fellowship education. [Table: see text]