Out with the Old...In with the New

Now that you have gotten rid of last year's chief residents, it is time to get back to work! This Week at PRESENT Courseware, I am presenting a 2 part welcome series to help our new members get acquainted with this online resource and learn how to make the best use of it. Tonight, I will review our Structured Curriculum and in Wednesday night's column, I will discuss what makes PRESENT Residency Education 'tick'.

Each Sunday night, you will receive an email from us called This Week in Podiatric Residency Education, that highlights the selected lectures in the PRESENT Curriculum which have been assigned. These are labeled Week 1 - Week 52 and follow a logical progression through the year, with 3 separate tracks (1st, 2nd and 3rd Year) based upon your level of training. You can always view the prior columns of any PRESENT publication at the website publications archive.

While we suggest that you follow the Structured Curriculum, the entire library of topics is available to you 24/7 all year long. Each lecture that you view will be noted in your personal online record along with the results from each quiz that you take at the close of the lectures. Your program directors will be copied on this information, so pay attention and represent yourself well.

Once a month, there is a highlighted "Team View" lecture. The intent of this activity is to gather your entire program (residents and attendings) into one location for a PRESENT lecture. This will facilitate critique, discussion, debate, and perhaps some controversy. We fully expect that you will disagree with some of the speakers and their topics, and by viewing with your colleagues, you will be able to capitalize on this learning opportunity.

Best of luck for a great Academic Year 2008-2009! Please remember to contact me or anyone on our PRESENT team with comments and thoughts. We are literally improving this site everyday thanks to your feedback... Have a great week.