Membership Subcommittee Update: Students | Residents | Fellows

The SOCCA membership committee decided to make subcommittees this academic year for better creativity and engagement amongst its members. In the fellowship subcommittee, we held a job search webinar in the fall for the current critical care fellow class. We were able to invite panelists from both the private and academic settings; we were also able to include a current program director and academic chair. Comfort with virtual conferences may be one positive to come out of the COVID-19 pandemic, as we had good participation from all over the country. Highlights included: discussion of timeline for job search, growth of private practice opportunities, approaches to contract negotiation, and types of ICU settings available. The webinar is available to view for SOCCA members as well as a follow-up thread in the Docmatter community.

We have several future initiatives in the works to promote engagement among the fellow classes. First, we plan to put together a fellows’ exit package outlining the benefits of SOCCA membership such as the annual SOCCA board review course and early career mentoring opportunities. Hopefully, this can mitigate the loss of membership we see as fellows transition into their professional lives. Moving forward, we hope to engage our fellows through online/social media initiatives (i.e., SOCCA Drip). As medical education evolves, FOAMed (Free Open Access Medical Education) has the ability to shorten the knowledge translation gap between research and clinical practice. A future online “fellows’ corner” would allow our critical care fellows to become familiar with this medium and, most importantly, learn from one other. Finally, as we (hopefully) transition to an in-person meeting in 2023, we hope to incorporate a fellows-only event to promote camaraderie.

Author

Christopher Choi, MD

Membership Committee; Subcommittee on Students, Residents, & Fellows

Assistant Professor

Department of Anesthesiology & Pain Management

University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center

Dallas, Texas