Beyond a curricular design of convenience: replacing the noon conference with an academic half day in three internal medicine residency programs

Abstract

Several residency programs have created an academic half day (AHD) for the delivery of core curriculum, and some program Web sites provide narrative descriptions of individual AHD curricula; nonetheless, little published literature on the AHD format exists. This article details three distinctive internal medicine residency programs (Cambridge Health Alliance, University of Cincinnati, and New York Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical College) whose leaders replaced the traditional noon conference curriculum with an AHD. Although each program's AHD developed independently of the other two, retrospective comparative review reveals instructive similarities and differences that may be useful to other residency directors. In this article, the authors describe the distinct approaches to the AHD at the three institutions through a framework of six core principles: (1) protect time and space to facilitate learning, (2) nurture active learning in residents, (3) choose and sequence curricular content deliberately, (4) develop faculty, (5) encourage resident preparation and accountability for learning, and (6) employ a continuous improvement approach to curriculum development and evaluation. The authors chronicle curricular adaptations at each institution over the first three years of experience. Preliminary outcome data, presented in the article, suggests that the transition from the traditional noon conference to an AHD may increase conference attendance, improve resident and faculty satisfaction with the curriculum, and improve resident performance on the In Training Examination.