What makes a good didactics program?

[buddy 2004]

Hello, just wondering if anyone can describe what makes a good didactics program. I am not just talking about "good residency program" per se, but aside from elective time and fellowship placement, what is the best use of the five hours per week that we get?

Let's say the didactics are planned by the chief residents, with minimal direct intervention by the program director other than monthly planning conferences. Would it be best to focus on new, contemporary topics and leave the basics for self study, or to mostly have basic lectures? Some people would argue that residents should study the basics at home by reading.

Also, let's say that your rotations are heavily biased towards inpatient rehabilitation. Would you try to compensate by focusing more on physical medicine in the didactics? Or do you spend the didactic time with the "important, but not tested heavily" topics of rehabilitation (like nutrition, neuropsych, journal club).

Thanks for your input.

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[rehab_sports_dr]

If I were designing a didactic schedule, I would use the topics of emphasis for the boards as a guideline: http://www.abpmr.org/

I would try to match the same emphasis that is used on the boards, with perhaps some additional emphasis on difficult to understand concepts (e.g., P+O and electrodiagnostics). I would liberally use the legal and publicly available questions- the SAEs, study guides, and AANEM-SAE- for frequent assessment of the residents.