Virtual Cafes: An Innovative Way for Rapidly Disseminating Educational Best Practices and Building Community During COVID-19.

Problem

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the medical education community's ability to teach learners. Challenges have included altered clinical experiences (eg, decreased patient exposure due to lack of personal protective equipment, decreased number of patients presurge, and increased number of patients postsurge), disruptions to previously established teaching models (eg, limited opportunities for in-person educational conferences, decreased availability of teachers due to clinical, and organizational demands), wellness concerns (eg, isolation, anxiety, and depression), and an intense, highly pressured clinical learning environment.1, 2, 3

Approach

The Association of Pediatric Program Directors (APPD) created Virtual Cafes to quickly share educational innovations and best practices and to build community and consensus among our 3983 members from 201 institutions. Since the end of March 2020, we have hosted daily, 1-hour, Zoom videoconference Virtual Cafes. The Board of Directors and Executive Committees each organize and lead 1 session per week (1 for all APPD, and 1 each for Chief Residents, Residency Leadership, Fellowship Leadership, and Coordinators). Sessions have focused primarily on COVID-related graduate medical education issues, including educational innovations, clinical needs, surge planning, telehealth, wellness initiatives for learners and leaders, and adaptations for graduation, orientation, onboarding, and recruitment. Some sessions have provided content that was missed due to cancellation of the spring APPD Conference. Each session starts with a short presentation of ideas, followed by open dialogue and information sharing among participants verbally and through the chat function. Best practices are compiled and shared with membership through our website and discussion board. The Virtual Cafes are offered free of charge.

Outcomes to Date

Twenty-four sessions occurred between March 26 and May 1, 2020, with a mean of 255 participants on “All APPD” Virtual Cafes (range: 164–395) and mean of 114 participants on other Virtual Cafes (range: 36–300). Through the Virtual Cafes, members shared 36 educational innovations, 11 clinical innovations, 52 wellness innovations, captured on our website (https://www.appd.org/meetings-education/virtual-cafes/). Multiple APPD members noted that these cafes resulted in significant changes in their approaches to educational, clinical, and administrative issues. Several members reported feeling more connected to other APPD members and more engaged with the organization as a result of the Virtual Cafes. One member commented “When I reflect on the COVID pandemic, what is most remarkable to me is how much MORE, rather than less, connected I feel with others. This is true of my residency leadership team, my APPD executive team, and all of APPD because of Virtual Cafes.”

Next Steps/Planned Curricular Adaptations

Virtual Cafes are a successful way to engage membership, build community, and quickly disseminate innovative educational practices. Though they were originally envisioned to help during the pandemic, we recognize the impact of this method of communication and dissemination and will be continuing it throughout the year. Next steps include adapting sessions to focus on new challenges and include more interactive features such as online polling. Future studies should evaluate the impact of Virtual Cafes on the number of new innovations incorporated into residency and fellowship programs, impact on trainee learning, and graduate medical education leaders’ engagement in the APPD.