MD Orientation Providing Residents With More Information, Support

Every summer in June and July, BWH welcomes more than 250 new residents. The Partners Office for Graduate Medical Education (GME) organizes an orientation for all of the new trainees during which time various departments join together to focus on safety, education and well-being for the new physicians.

This year, the Office for GME focused on big picture issues for the trainees. “We wanted to give them a sense of the circles of support around them, not just within their program, but within Partners and BWH as well,” said Jo Shapiro, MD, associate director of Partners GME and chief of Otolaryngology at BWH. The orientation presented an overview of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) Core Competencies, and gave residents information about duty hours, supervision guidelines and patient safety initiatives. Presenters also gave residents contacts in the event of a problem. “We want to provide them ready access to support when they are in need of it,” she added.

The Needle Safety Advisory Committee contributed new features to resident orientation this year, including central line training in the Stratus Center, as well as more detailed hands-on training and safety education for all needle safety devices. Katherine Twitchell, MS, RN, CS, chair of the committee, said that the residents are shown the proper technique on using a device and are required to perform a demonstration of correct usage with each under the watchful eye of a physician or nurse practitioner. “We give our residents the opportunity to see, demonstrate, ask questions and learn how to use the devices correctly, which is a critically important way to reduce injury,” said Twitchell.