Virtual Noon Conferences: Providing Resident Education and Wellness During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically impacted graduate medical education. Family medicine residents are now doing substantial clinical work and learning from home. We continued to offer academic half-day didactics virtually, but sensed a need for daily resident education and social support, so we implemented a virtual daily noon conference to address these needs.

The virtual noon conferences used web-based technology and had weekly organ system themes with consistent daily learning activities like cases and review questions. Four key components made the conferences collaborative and inclusive; they were led by residents, required minimal preparation by using available materials, were interactive, and promoted social connection with wellness activities. We evaluated the impact on resident-perceived knowledge and wellness over 6 weeks with weekly surveys for residents attending at least one conference that week and a postintervention survey.

Of 66 responses to the weekly surveys, 98% agreed that noon conferences helped to increase knowledge and social connection. Of 46 total residents, 35 (76%) answered the postintervention survey, and all agreed that noon conferences helped to increase knowledge, were interactive, and increased social connection. Ninety-one percent favored continuing the noon conferences. More than three-quarters of postintervention survey respondents agreed that virtual noon conferences were equally or more beneficial compared to academic half days for both their education and well-being during the pandemic.

Virtual noon conferences have provided regular interactive learning and fostered resident well-being during the pandemic. They can supplement resident curriculum and wellness and can be easily adopted by other programs.