AFMRD—IMPROVING CONTINUITY OF COMMUNICATION

Program directors (PDs) and faculty deal with issues of ensuring and enhancing patient continuity of care by residents. In much the same way, the AFMRD strives to keep members informed and up to date on topics of common interest.

Silence may be golden, but open, honest, and interactive communication is pure gold. One of the board’s tasks is to improve continuity of communication with our members. This is the responsibility of the AFMRD Communication Committee.

Ascertaining the questions and concerns of our over 450 PDs, located in geographically diverse locations and working in a multitude of different practices, is a monumental task. Questions arise on a daily basis for PDs and family medicine faculty. To whom should the question be directed? Who is a recognized content expert?

Many questions are posted on our AFMRD program director list serve. The traffic can be heavy and often redundant. Senior directors recognize that there are patterns of recurrent questions. Some of this may be due to high turnover rates. According to ACGME data, there have been 323 new or changed residency directors from 2004 to 2009 (http://www.acgme.org). With so many new or different leaders, continuity of communication is difficult.

The AFMRD Communication Committee is choosing the most common frequently asked questions (FAQs) and seeking volunteer PDs to research and write a concise 250-word answer that will be posted on the AFMRD Web site (http://www.afmrd.org). These helpful answers will be located in the PD Toolbox. Hopefully, this will be a beneficial resource for new PDs as well as a quick reference for established directors. This will be an ongoing process with the ability to add new FAQs.

“The AFMRD Board encourages you (directors) to actively participate in discussions on our list serve and to share your “best practices” with our membership by sending them to our staff for posting on our PD’s Toolbox section of our Web site,” wrote Dr Stan Kozakowski, President of AFMRD, on a recent AFMRD Web page.

The PD Toolbox is one of the important components of the new and improved AFMRD Web site. To enhance communication, the AFMRD has a Features section of the home page covering current events of pertinent importance updated on a regular basis. The Highlights section emphasizes topics of timely information as well as board and member spotlights.

Other important avenues of communication on the Web site include: (1) salary survey, (2) membership directory, (3) National Institute for Program Director Development (NIPDD), (4) financial management, (5) PD leadership awards, and (6) leadership and innovation.

“I challenge each of you to share something that you think you do well with the rest of us,” encourages Dr Kozakowski in a recent AFMRD Web-page article. With so much change and stress in our workplace, PDs and faculty need the steadiness and support of an ongoing, open opportunity to communicate.

• © 2010 Annals of Family Medicine, Inc.