| Summary: | Abstract Introduction The transition from medical student to intern is a challenging process characterized by a steep learning curve as new doctors are suddenly faced with markedly increased clinical responsibilities. These changes require strong communication and organizational skills as well as basic, practical medical knowledge. The overall goal of this module is to provide a framework to teach and practice skills related to organization and communication amongst members of a medical team. Through the use of pediatric cases, clinical concepts and medical management are also reinforced. The module uses a combination of didactic presentations, small-group discussions, role-playing, and facilitated debriefings. The targeted audience is medical students entering into residencies in pediatrics, medicine/pediatrics, and family medicine, but the module could also be used with interns or residents in these fields. Methods This resource is intended to be used over the course of a day. It uses four pediatric cases to help facilitate discussion, modeling, and role-playing regarding formulating assessments and plans, identifying tasks, answering pages, and handing off patients to covering providers. These modules were developed as part of a larger pediatric boot camp but can be used in a stand-alone fashion. This curriculum has been used at two institutions over the past 4 years with groups of fourth-year medical students entering into pediatric, medicine/pediatric, and family medicine residencies. Our group sizes have ranged from six to 16 students, with ratios of three or four students per facilitator. Results Facilitators consistently note improvement in participants' clinical reasoning, ability to give feedback, self-reflection, and communication. This also includes their ability to summarizing and present clinical data, communicate with other nonphysician health care team members, and provide sign-outs during the sessions. Participants have reported statistically significant increases in self-reported confidence in their abilities to prioritize when faced with multiple responsibilities, to provide a high-quality and thorough sign-out to another resident when going off service, to provide high-quality and thorough sign-out about their patients to a covering resident, to receive sign-out to cross-cover another trainee's patients, and to manage clinical queries from the nursing staff over the phone. Discussion The transition from medical student to intern requires strong communication and organizational skills, as well as basic, practical medical knowledge. This module was developed to provide such skills to graduating fourth-year medical students.
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