Integration of a blog into an emergency medicine residency curriculum

Abstract

The Original Kings of County (TOKC) blog was launched in an effort to integrate the principles of Free Open Access Meducation (FOAM) into the SUNY Downstate EM Residency Program. The Council of Emergency Medicine Residency Directors (CORD) Social Media Task Force published its guidelines, best practices and recommendations for integrating social media into EM residency programs in 2014, demonstrating a need for the creation of such educational resources. Educational objectives for TOKC blog include demonstrating the integration of the didactic activities of a large urban EM residency program into a residency-based blog, increasing resident engagement in their didactics through the use of a residency blog, and developing residents' skills with respect to education and scholarship through authorship for a residency blog. The curricular design of TOKC blog was implemented to create an online hub for the integration of the principles of Web 2.0 into the curriculum at the SUNY Downstate EM Residency Program. It has three goals that drive content for the blog posts. The first is to post educational content that mirrors didactics within the program for residents who are unable to attend these activities. The second is to engage residents through their own authorship of blog posts on topics of interest while aiding them to develop an academic niche and increase their proficiency as academic authors. The third is to attract and encourage participation in the blog through contests using clinical cases. This 3-prong approach creates a comprehensive online didactic presence that embraces the principles of FOAM. As of April 1, 2015, TOKC has generated over 600 posts by more than 20 resident and faculty authors and receives more than 100 page views per day. This provides our program a platform to share their scholarship with a local, national, and international community. Additionally, TOKC was referenced in the article, "Integration of Social Media in Emergency Medicine Residency Curriculum," by Scott et al. published in Annals of Emergency Medicine.