To Didactics and Beyond: Leveraging Academic Half-Day Sessions Beyond Medical Knowledge to Promote Professional Development, Leadership Skills, Resident Wellbeing and Program Culture

Academic half-day (AHD) is a common strategy for delivering didactic curriculum in a residency program. A protected half-day allows for attendance by the majority of residents and offers additional benefits of social interactions and wellness promotion. Over the years, we have evolved our AHD to incorporate a variety of educational strategies and expanded it beyond medical knowledge didactics. Focused on the program aims, our AHD includes components of professional development, career coaching, leadership and teaching skills, health care disparities and cultural competency, business in medicine, and more. The protected time also allows for integration of other activities during the AHD time, including intern retreat, graduation, and others.

In this workshop, we will review the conceptual approach to structuring an AHD curriculum around program goals and discuss practical applications in sessions. We will share the framework used in our program, including considerations of mapping academic content, speaker selection, tailored sessions for specific groups (like intern track and board review track), ongoing evaluation and adjustment plan, longitudinal themes, and special events. Participants will leave equipped with ideas, roadmaps, and tools to start, enhance, or redesign the AHD in their programs.