Wayne State University School of Medicine students, faculty members and administrators were instrumental in the production of a new American Medical Association handbook empowering students in the navigation of the transitions of each stage of medical education.

“Facilitating Effective Transitions Along the Medical Education Continuum: A Handbook for Learners and Faculty Derived From Corporate Coaching” is the result of work by a coalition of medical schools, including the WSU School of Medicine, to develop best practices and a guide to ease medical student passage through four key adaptions during education. The proposal, in 2020, secured a highly competitive $30,000 Accelerating Change in Medical Education Innovation Grant from the AMA.

The WSU School of Medicine led the project, with the participation of two other schools, the University of Michigan and the University of Utah.

During the research phase, the grant team noted that the stages of transition physicians-in-training experience remain largely siloed, and often result in anxiety among medical students. While students report entering medical school and moving along the continuum motivating and exciting, high levels of stress and burnout, including increased rates of suicide during the initial months of internship, are indicative of high levels of anxiety.

Noting that many seasoned executives face similar stress during promotions into new roles, the team partnered with Odgers Berndtson, a top-10 global leadership advisory firm, and surveyed medical students and residents, to develop best practices to assist medical students during their transitions.

The resulting book delves into the needs of students as they transition from entering medical school to the final stages of medical residency, and is organized into student and faculty guides for each stage of training. Case vignettes emphasize challenges students face and the strategies to overcome them during the transition to medical school, the transition to clerkships, the transition to residency and then into becoming a senior resident.

“This work was a result of a unique partnership between Odgers Berndtson and members of the medical education community to identify and target key issues at each transition point. This handbook brings together the expertise and thought leadership from the worlds of medical education and human capital development,” said Senthil Kumar Rajasekaran, M.D., MMHPE, FCP, senior associate dean for Undergraduate Medical Education and Curricular Affairs at the WSU School of Medicine, who served as principal investigator of the project. “This handbook emphasizes the trainee’s perspective on successful transition and also bridges the gap between how success is defined and what skills help trainees not only survive, but thrive in each stage of their medical education and training.”

Interested readers can view the handbook at https://cloud.e.ama-assn.org/21-1682-New-Med-Ed-ebook.

Among the WSU School of Medicine team members who contributed to the handbook are Jason Booza, Ph.D., assistant dean of Continuous Quality Improvement and Compliance; Margit Chadwell, M.D., associate dean of Student Affairs and Career Development; Ebony Manigault, M.P.H., a fourth-year medical student; Christopher Steffes, M.D., associate dean for Clinical Education; Lawrence Lash, Ph.D., professor and associate chair of Pharmacology; Salieha Zaheer, M.D., assistant professor of Family Medicine and Public Health Sciences; Geoffrey Potts, M.D., assistant professor of Dermatology; Prashanth Prabakaran, M.D., a resident in the Department of Otolaryngology; and LaVentra Danquah, director of the Shiffman Medical Library.