In our pursuit of finding the best methods for resident education, we have put substantial time and thought into how we prepare our residents for the boards. We believe that board preparedness begins in the first year of residency - it is not something we delay until near graduation. As a program, we owe it to each of our residents to set them on not only a path for clinical success, but with the skills and knowledge needed to successfully pass their boards!
Using our dedication to evidence-based best practices combined with comprehensive outcomes data from the American Board of Pediatrics, we developed the SPARK Program - Strengthening Proficiency & Advancing Resident Knowledge - designed to facilitate individual academic growth over the course of your training and prepare you for your American Board of Pediatrics Certifying Examination.
Using metrics such as USMLE/COMLEX performance, In-Training Examination performance, and other academic metrics, we have crafted a plan that supports optimization of routine clinical learning (i.e., reading for depth and understanding) with targeted individual goals for each resident. The SPARK Program is built on what we know about creating sustainable habits within a busy and demanding clinical schedule. Not only is this designed to ensure board readiness for each of our graduates, but also to support and foster each resident's growth as an individual, self-directed learner - a vital skill for all pediatricians.
The SPARK Program is a progressive plan based on each resident's performance and post-graduate year. The sequential nature of this program helps build on the real-time, clinically-based learning that is a day-to-day activity in residency and considers each resident's level of training. This is more than a "set number of questions" quota - this is a mentor-based system designed to reinforce each individual's progression towards board certification.
Once again, in keeping with best educational evidence, we have abandoned the inefficient lecture model - there simply isn't any possible way a lecturer could impart all of the knowledge in his field that is necessary for the boards; even if he or she could, you couldn't possibly sit still and pay attention long enough to absorb it. So in the spring of 2012, we changed this activity so that it is also structured in a teamwork-based format, albeit with a slightly different twist; one senior will break down a test question and explain his or her reasoning in arriving at an answer; subsequently, the other residents present offer their thoughts – agreement or disagreement with the answer, and why. Not only do we address specific data points likely to come up on the examination, we allow you to see your colleagues' thought processes at work, and borrow insights where appropriate to help you in their own test preparation.
The feedback from seniors who participated in this new format indicates that it provides a far superior form of preparation for the exam than the typical lecture based board prep course. Our philosophy is that the combination of the tools and experiences we provide to learn and perform well on the Board Exam, coupled with the necessary individual review work required, will lead to your successful performance on the Board Exam.