Program Coordinator’s Corner – March 2018

Building a Coordinator Team

Tracy Crosby, C-TAGME
tracy.crosby@yale.edu
Coordinator, Yale Affiliated Hospitals Program
Fellowship Coordinator, Section of Endocrinology
Founding member, IMPACT

As so many other fellowship coordinators, I wear more than one hat:  Endocrinology Fellowship Coordinator; Yale Affiliated Hospitals Program Coordinator; and Founding Member, IMPACT.  Upon seeing my email signature line, some people will ask, what’s IMPACT?

IMPACT started as a group of 12 Internal Medicine fellowship coordinators and has grown to become a multidisciplinary team which includes our GME office, Pediatrics, Psychiatry, and, as a result of the recent ACGME conference, we are welcoming Neurosurgery to the fold.  All told, we now have about 20 members that meet monthly.  And it’s voluntary.

How did this all happen?

When I started as a new fellowship coordinator in 2008, I was a bit overwhelmed – and that was before NAS and PEC’s and CCC’s and APE’s.  I was truly lucky to have an amazing Program Director (kudos to Silvio Inzucchi) who answered every single question.  But still I felt like I was missing something.

The first year as a GME coordinator is spent learning all the new stuff.  The second year, you are really getting to know the ropes, and perhaps start making some improvements.  By the third year, you are finally feeling confident – or at least, something close to confident.

Fast forward a couple years…  I’m enjoying GME, things are changing all around me… I’ve been to a couple of ACGME annual conferences and I’m learning a ton.  I’m meeting people from other institutions and other specialties.  I’m networking outside my institution, which I never thought would happen.  But still, I’m missing something.  And I realized what it was: a squad.  A posse.  A team.  Peers and colleagues at my own institution who are in the trenches with me, and who understand what it means to work in GME here at Yale.

So, I started to ponder and reflect.  And I then I became aware of the fact that the Department of Internal Medicine has a whole bunch of fellowship programs.  About a dozen, actually.  And then I REALLY started to think and question, why don’t we get together as our own group?  What if we – the fellowship coordinators in Internal Medicine – had a more formal meeting?  Separate from the Office of GME’s coordinator meetings (which could theoretically include over 60 people)?  What if all the Internal Medicine fellowship coordinators had a place to actually got to know each other, and collaborate, and share best practices?

I reached out, and the response was incredible.  People were hungry for it.

We had our first meeting in February 2015 and decided to meet again in one month.  By April, we had agreed this would be a monthly meeting and we decided on a name: IMPACT, Internal Medicine Program Administrators Collaboration Team.  My PD developed a logo.  Yes, a LOGO!

Now, we have an agenda each month.  Most of the time we talk about what works and what doesn’t, what’s coming down the pike, what’s new in GME or at the University or within the Department.  Sometimes we have guest speakers: our House Staff Office, the Medical Staff Administration folks, the people who handle our fellows credentialing at the VA.  When our DIO retired and a new one was selected, we invited him and talked about his vision for the institution AND for coordinators.  We mentor the newbies.  And we became multi-disciplinary!  We now have regular attendees from the Office of GME, Pediatrics, Psychiatry, and Neurosurgery.

It has been one of the most fulfilling experiences, professionally and personally.  It has taught me how to be a leader and has provided me with friendships that have enriched my life in ways I could not have predicted.  I have witnessed coordinators leaving their comfort zones and getting TAGME certification or presenting at the annual institutional GME retreat.  One is now working with her subspecialty colleagues to create their own coordinator group, of which she will be considered a founding member!  She’s on an expert panel at the inaugural coordinator conference within their subspecialty’s annual meeting!

And the most amazing aspect?  This is voluntary.  Absolutely no one requires them to attend this meeting.  But they come.

When I asked the group for comments I could include in this piece, the replies blew me away.

• Excellent resource for fellowship program coordinators.
• Coordinators are willing to help each other.
• My support group.
• I find the meetings extremely helpful.
• I’ve learned so much from seasoned coordinators and guest speakers.
• A platform to share information face-to-face.
• Time well spent.
• Wonderful mix of new and experienced coordinators sharing ideas in a smaller, more intimate setting than our larger group meetings.
• Meetings are tailored to meet the needs of the group.
• This group is supported and appreciated by the GME office.
• Having a group of individuals that share the same responsibilities, especially with regards to program requirements, orientation and training, and the sometimes grueling on-boarding process has taken a lot of stress away from the job. Before I always felt alone being the only person in my section who was working with the fellowships.  There was no one to turn to for help especially once the ACGME got technical with milestones reporting and the yearly self-study.  To have all these coordinators come together monthly (and some have been doing the job as long as I have) has been such a relief.
• Being a part of IMPACT and attending the monthly meetings has been so beneficial to my career and well-being. We have been able to streamline countless forms and ways of doing things for all of our fellowship programs.  I truly appreciate meeting with this group of wonderful, smart women, to hear their thoughts and opinions on all aspects of our roles and duties as program coordinators.
• I wouldn’t have made it through my first year successfully without IMPACT.

That right there is why I started this whole thing.  To hear that one person felt it helped her navigate something which most of us had to learn on our own is amazing.

Mic drop.

So, if you feel like your program/your department/your institution is missing something, figure out what it is, and then go get it/develop it/create it.  It will take time.  You’ll hit a couple snags along the way.  But you’ve got the skills and the resources.  Start with the folks you are ‘meeting’ now through this newsletter.  Give me a holler.  There’s a whole GME world out there, ripe for the exploring.  Don’t be shy.  You’ll surprise yourself with what you can accomplish.

If you build it, they will come.

Tracy Crosby, C-TAGME

tel 203-785-2479
fax 203-737-2999