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Resident Files: Using Kotter’s 8-Step Change Model to Revive Educational Conferences (S6:E39)

During the COVID-19 pandemic, it became challenging to bring healthcare professionals together to learn about and discuss important concepts in clinical medicine. Nationally, conference attendance has dwindled, and pediatrics board exam passage rates have been falling every year since 2019, hitting their lowest point of just 80% in 2023.

Listen to pediatric experts discuss revitalizing conferences at Stanford University

In this episode, Drs. Jennifer Sedler, Elizabeth Nguyen and Ryan Lion join us to discuss how they noticed dwindling attendance at conferences and then used Kotter’s change model to get teachers and learners back together. They share their results, the challenges they faced and the lessons they learned along the way. 

Drs. Sedler, Nguyen and Lion are all chief residents at Stanford University. 

In this episode, we discuss:

  • Using Kotter’s model to achieve three goals: increase faculty and resident attendance, change cultural perception and increase resident knowledge and clinical reasoning skills
  • Creating a sense of urgency, building a powerful coalition and developing a vision for change
  • Communicating the vision, removing obstacles and generating short-term wins
  • Building on the wins and embedding the changes into the culture
  • Generating awareness and incentivizing residents and faculty  

Listen here or on your podcast platform of choice, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts.

Refer a patient to Children’s Colorado.