Don’t let remote learning throw you off this year! We’ve provided online residency education tools for years, and we know that with a few tweaks to your study process, you can have an incredibly successful residency year—pandemic or no pandemic.
Despite the stress you’re under, this can be done. And, we’re all lucky to live in the digital age. That means you can still hold your didactics sessions and weekly conferences with your fellow residents. You might just have to make a few tweaks to make it work! Here’s some ideas for how to get you started—you won’t miss a step if you employ some of these pro tips into your routine!
Explore Moving Weekly Meetings and Conferences to Zoom
You and your fellow residents can still get together and hold didactics sessions on a regular basis—and you might want to explore holding these meetings with an online video conferencing platform like Zoom.
Zoom does have HIPAA-compliant plans, too. And, as a bonus, you’ll get to see your friends’ faces! Keep each other on-track with study plans and motivated throughout the summer.
Study With a Review Course or Video Board Review
Our first-ever online-only Internal Medicine Review Course is coming up this July. The online course experience is super interactive and has hundreds of audience response questions. Think of it like your Friday conference, but 5 days of intense review.
Our Video Board Review feels similar to the online Review Course, but without the interaction with speakers and other attendees. The great part about the Video Board Review is the flexibility—you can watch videos on the go, wherever you study best.
Take Breaks to Exercise
Frequent breaks are important to keep your brain motivated and on track! We recommend that you block time for the things you need to get done during the day: beyond your specific work hours, you should make time for exercise, family, and taking care of your overall mental and physical health daily.
It'll help you be a more competent physician, and will definitely increase your capacity to learn new information. Aerobic exercise not only improves short-term memory but also increases the size of the hippocampus.
Communicate with Your Family and Roommates
Set “office hours” for studying and communicate those to your family/roommates. You’re not able to do 7 loads of laundry or binge Netflix all day. You are still studying—even if your co-habitants are home more than usual—and need minimal distractions. Set expectations with your family so they know when interruptions are ok (and not ok).
Focus on What You Can Control
You’re in charge of how you spend your time—that includes all the time you spend studying. If you want to optimize your study time, we recommend you read StudyWise. It will unsettle you by de-bunking 6 learning myths that may be holding you back—and will reveal the 2 secrets to long-term learning.
Embrace the change!
Things will probably look a little different from now on, so it’s time to embrace our “new normal.” Get used to syncing up with your fellow residents via Zoom—and embrace the fact that you get to keep connecting with people digitally, even if you can’t in-person!
