2025 Workshop List

Coaching for Impact: Cultivating Better Learning Environments

Justin Endo, MD, MHPE, CPC; Kelly Herold, MD; Jami Simpson, MS, ACC, TICC & Julia Yates, MSSW, LSCW

 

Session Description

This interactive workshop will use a case-based scenario to differentiate coaching, mentoring and counseling. We will then have a small group exercise in which participants have an opportunity to practice coaching skills of active listening and asking powerful open-ended questions. We will highlight how coaching can complement these other modalities to help learners tap into their own strengths. Intended audience: faculty, academic staff, residents, fellows.

Objectives

  1. Define coaching and explain how it differs from mentoring and counseling
  2. Demonstrate how to use a coach approach with powerful questions and active listening

 


Getting Climate Smart! Innovative Medical Education for Teaching /Learning About Climate Impacts on Health Across the Continuum

Kjersti Knox, MD; Deborah Simpson, PhD; Anne Getzin, MD; Kathryn Agard, CMP, PMP; Lawrence Moore, MD, MPH; Jessica O’Brien, MD & Jacob Bidwell, MD

 

Session Description

Climate change affects our patients’ health through a range of exposures—including increasing heatwaves, extreme weather events, poor air quality, and expanding vector-borne illnesses, per the American Public Health Association. On Earth Day 2022 the White House and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) launched a voluntary commitment by private health care organizations to increase climate resilience and emissions reduction that includes cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent by 2030 and achieving net zero emissions by 2050. UW School of Medicine and Advocate/Aurora Health have signed this pledge. While faculty are addressing the health consequences and sustainability with patients, most feel unprepared to teach in this area. This session will describe proven strategies for clinician climate education and then in small groups members will brainstorm additional approaches and present their “best” strategy in a shark tank format. The “sharks” will judge based on feasibility, engagement, and ROI. Following the “shark tank” presentations and prizes, we will debrief and share resources.

Objectives

  1. Recognize the need for educating clinicians across the continuum re: impacts of climate on patients’ health and role of health care systems on global warming
  2. Develop (and present) a feasible, engaging, and informative educational session/strategy related to climate education
  3. To identity one strategy to adopt/adapt that could be feasibly implemented at home organization

 


Moving ForWard: Curriculum Enhancements, Trainings, and Tips for Phase 2 and 3 Curriculum

Kimberly Lansing, MD, PhD; Kyla Lee, MD; Irina Shakhnovich, MD; Molly Sygulla, MD & Kenneth Merkitch, MD

 

Session Description

The innovative ForWard curriculum has introduced a novel learning format for the UWSMPH, inspiring new and engaging methods of teaching for the required topics. The Western Academic Campus in La Crosse has been utilizing creative and interactive teaching methods in the Phase 2 Clinical Blocks and the WARM program core components. Please join our interactive workshop to exchange ideas and share successful teaching techniques that you can utilize.

Objectives

  1. Explore hands on, engaging, and interactive teaching techniques that can be used for all of the required UWSMPH Phase 2 clinical blocks
  2. Discover new approaches to developing leadership, resiliency, and communication skills along with curriculum related to healthcare inequity topics in Phase 2 and 3 for the WARM program
  3. Engage in small and large group discussions regarding best teaching practices from UWSMPH and partner programs from around the state which can be utilized in your program

 


Replacing the Chalk Talk with Pseudo-Improvised Teaching

Laura Zakowski, MD & Amy Zelenski, PhD

 

Session Description

Many clinical teachers prepare short lectures (chalk talks) in advance to share with learners during rounds or breaks in activity. However, when no material is prepared, they may struggle to provide meaningful, enduring knowledge to their team. We introduce strategies for integrating teaching into clinical activities in a way that engages all team members. Loosely based on improvisation techniques, these methods require minimal preparation and are adaptable to both inpatient and outpatient settings. These techniques are most relevant to clinical teaching, and can be used by faculty or trainees.  In this session, we will present several techniques to the larger group, followed by small group discussions using case-based examples. To conclude, participants will have time to reflect on the strategies and commit to implementing one in their next teaching session.

Objectives

  1. Identify teaching techniques requiring minimum preparation
  2. List several benefits of active learning
  3. Review principles of inclusive teaching and a positive learning environment to enhance the success of these techniques
  4. Consider using one new technique with your next teaching opportunity

 


Training the Narrative Mind: Strengthening Reflection, Connection, and Care

Kevin Wyne, PA-C, MPAS, MSc & Abby McGuire, PA-C, MPAS

 

Session Description

To help our students address required accreditation competencies related to self-reflection, metacognition, and continuous self-improvement, our program introduced a Narrative Medicine (NM) framework into our curriculum. NM seeks to understand how the patient’s story interweaves with that of the provider in the clinical encounter to create new meaning and therapeutic possibilities. NM also challenges students to critically reflect on their own assumptions and grapple with structural conditions that produce disparities in health care outcomes. NM training can improve communication skills, promote ethical practice, and reduce provider burnout. The session will include a 15-minute introduction to NM including an interactive activity where attendees can engage in facilitated NM practice. The presentation will focus on specific educational strategies to engage learners using NM, approaches to assessment of NM skills, and will highlight how our NM curriculum address accreditation standards.

Objectives

  1. Describe how narrative frameworks guide patient understanding of illness and disease, and understand narrative competence as a strategy to nourish healthy patient-provider relationships
  2. Highlight the benefits of incorporating Narrative Medicine throughout a medical curriculum
  3. Describe Narrative Medicine techniques to cultivate self-reflection practices

 


Vivid Vignettes: How to Model and Teach Patient-Centered Note Writing

Elizabeth Fleming, MD; Jessica Babal, MD; Katherine Bakke, MD; Liana Eskola, MD & Nicole Nelson, PhD

 

Session Description

The goal of this workshop is to introduce the concepts of narrative medicine and bias in medical documentation as they relate to clinical practice. The session will give participants the opportunity to advance their ability to recognize bias in the medical record and practice writing vivid vignettes, a tool that can be used to refocus our clinical documentation on the patient’s story. Participants will also discuss strategies for implementing vivid vignettes into their medical teaching. Participants will leave the session with skills that they can use to make their own notes more patient-centered and foster further discussion around best practices for note writing for medical trainees. This session will include a didactic presentation, small group & large exercises, narrative writing exercise, and a group reflection.

Objectives

  1. Describe foundational skillsets for developing narrative competence.
  2. Define bias in clinical documentation and explain how it can impact patient care.
  3. Practice the medical humanities methods of close reading, attentive listening, and creative expression to center the clinical encounter on the story of the patient.
  4. Apply strategies to integrate vivid vignettes in medical teaching.