Didactics and Academics
Keeping an up-to-date and continuous learning is fundamental for the
Otolaryngology residency, and the COVID-19 pandemic has allowed
alternative teaching methods to arise. For instance, all chilean first
and second year Otolaryngology residents have mandatory unified core
curriculum lessons twice a week between april and november, previously
performed in-person by teachers from the Sociedad Chilena de
Otorrinolaringología y Cirugía de Cabeza y Cuello. However, since the
COVID-19 outbreak all the lectures and evaluations were changed to an
online platform.
In the same way, our residency program introduced a dynamic academic
schedule during the pandemia, hosted through a virtual platform:
1.- Seminars regarding a topic of interest for residents are held twice
a week, hosted by an assigned attending. The attending previously
chooses bibliography for the seminar, where the topic is addressed and
discussed according to the literature’s clinical relevance and
application.
2.- Every wednesday a Department meeting takes place, where a topic of
interest is discussed and presented by a resident.
3.- The residents joined the
“Collaborative
Multi-Institutional Otolaryngology Residency Education Program”,
aiming to attend four conferences per week7.
4.- One module from Otosource was designated for each resident per week.
The theme was decided according to the residency
year8.
5.- The learning progress is objectified through formative pop quizzes
once every two weeks using the CANVAS platform. These quizzes evaluate
subjects addressed the previous week.
Finally, residents were encouraged to complete all the ongoing research,
and create new retrospective studies during their “Off period”.