Session Design Submission Review

The idea of faculty development programs can be met with eye-rolling or general disinterest as another ask of a faculty member’s already stretched time.  As a potential complement or stand alone session to the Faculty Development/VCE Committee Panel proposal on defining Faculty Development, this workshop will focus on budling faculty buy-in for participating in faculty development programs.  We will discuss motivation as a large group and follow this with 2 break out sessions where attendees can choose any of 4 options to participate.  Breakout topics will include opportunities to discuss obtaining funding, troubleshooting their own current development programs, maintaining engagement through challenges and how to give credit for faculty time on educational endeavors.  Break out group leaders will provide handouts or tools as well as help participants with their own specific challenges to enact change at their home institutions.  A QR code with a link to a google drive with these resources will be provided to particpants.

Introductions (5 minutes)

Motivating Faculty (10 Minutes)

Break Out Groups Round 1 (30 Minutes)

• Finding Funding Sources – (Pamela Rowland)
• Maintaining Engagement through Personal or Professional Challenges (Marth Godfrey)
• Troubleshoot Your Current Program (Ken Lipshy)
• Giving Credit for the Work: Lessons Learned from (Failed) Attempts at Educational RVUs (Jacob Peschman)

Move to New Groups (5 Minutes)

Break Out Groups Round 2 (30 Minutes)

• Finding Funding Sources – (Pamela Rowland)
• Maintaining Engagement through Personal or Professional Challenges (Marth Godfrey)
• Troubleshoot Your Current Program (Ken Lipshy)
• Giving Credit for the Work: Lessons Learned from (Failed) Attempts at Educational RVUs (Jacob Peschman)

Closing Questions (10 minutes)

Surgical education spans medical school, residency, and fellowship—but too often, each phase operates in isolation. The result is fragmented learner transitions, inconsistent expectations, and duplicated effort across departments. At the same time, institutions face growing external pressures: LCME reviews, ACGME site visits, medical school expansion, and tighter budgets. Meeting these challenges requires more than program-level excellence—it demands cross-continuum communication and collaboration among faculty, coordinators, and administrative leaders.

This interactive session offers a practical roadmap for surgical education leaders to break down silos and build integrated systems across UME, GME, and fellowship. Presenters will include a Vice Chair of Education, a Clerkship Director, a Program Director, an Education Coordinator, and a Department Business Manager. Together, they will share real-world strategies that strengthen collaboration across educational roles while addressing institutional challenges with shared solutions.

The session will begin by identifying common gaps in communication, learner support, and system design—such as inconsistent professionalism expectations, feedback breakdowns, and onboarding redundancies. Faculty and coordinators will then co-present case examples of how collaboration across programs has improved outcomes during LCME and ACGME visits, enhanced compliance, and smoothed learner transitions. The session will also elevate the unique perspective of education coordinators, who often serve as institutional memory and operational glue between training levels.

New in this session is the deliberate inclusion of a Business Manager, who will outline the financial and operational advantages of integrated education planning. Participants will explore how shared onboarding processes, centralized tracking systems, and coordinated faculty development can reduce duplication, streamline accreditation prep, and improve return on investment across the department.

Throughout the session, attendees will receive practical tools they can take back to their home institutions, including:

• Templates for cross-level planning and communication (e.g., shared onboarding checklists, joint accreditation timelines)
• Strategies for including coordinators and business leaders in education planning
• Models for mentorship ladders and professionalism curricula that span training levels
• Financial and administrative considerations for resource-sharing across UME/GME/fellowship

This session is designed for surgical educators at all levels, including faculty, program directors, clerkship leaders, coordinators, and departmental business or administrative officers. Whether you’re preparing for a site visit, managing rapid growth, or seeking to improve the learner experience, this workshop offers actionable steps toward more unified, efficient, and resilient surgical education programs.

Challenging patient encounters are an inevitable part of surgical practice. From patients distressed about delays in care, to families upset after unexpected complications, surgical trainees are often on the front line of emotionally charged situations. While technical skills and clinical decision-making are emphasized in surgical education, structured training in verbal de-escalation is rarely incorporated into residency curricula. This gap leaves trainees underprepared to navigate conflict effectively, which can increase trainee stress and burnout as well as escalate conflicts that strain provider-patient relationships and healthcare delivery.

This interactive workshop is designed for surgical educators, program directors, simulation faculty, and surgical trainees who want to strengthen their teaching and assessment of high-stake communication skills.

The session will begin by framing the importance of de-escalation in surgery, highlighting common scenarios where these skills are critical, such as postoperative complications and disagreements about management plans. Facilitators will then introduce a concise “DE-ESCALATE Toolkit” that outlines practical strategies for these patient encounters including distracting the patient from their anger spiral, validating their experience, setting boundaries respectfully, and active listening with key go-to phrases as well as recognizing when to seek additional support.

Participants will observe a live demonstration role-play that illustrates both ineffective and effective verbal de-escalation communication approaches. Using a simple, structured rubric designed for assessing de-escalation communication, attendees will analyze the demonstration to identify behaviors that successfully defuse tension. The majority of the workshop will be spent in small groups where participants will engage in role-play practice using short surgical case scenarios. Each participant will have the opportunity to practice de-escalation as the “trainee,” receive structured peer and facilitator feedback guided by the rubric, and reflect on their own communication style.