Teaching Conference Overview

Conference Summary

Across our sites, we have a strong tradition of innovative teaching conferences that occur throughout the day. Our formal conferences include:

  • Morning Report (West LA VA, RR UCLA)
  • Noon Conference (RR UCLA, SM UCLA, West LA VA, Sepulveda VA)
  • Dept. of Medicine Grand Rounds series at both West LA VA and RR UCLA
  • Simulation case-based teaching on common emergency scenarios (West LA VA, RR UCLA)
  • Clinicopathology conference: a clinical unknown is presented to expert faculty with input from radiology and pathology
  • APEX conference (West LA VA, RR UCLA): a series of clinical situations involving on-the-spot clinical reasoning with input from faculty and residents
  • Outpatient morning report: half day focused on outpatient topics each +1 week Wednesday morning
  • Tuesday Curriculum: half day curriculum during some +1 weeks around themes including:
    • Equity, diversity, and Inclusivity (microaggressions, inclusive learning environments, structural racism, and social determinants of health)
    • Medical education
    • Narrative medicine
    • Leadership skills & team management
    • Simulation and procedure training

Ronald Reagan UCLA Teaching Conferences

At RR UCLA, a variety of interactive conferences are held each weekday at noon. Some highlights:

  • Schema Day: weekly conference in which clinician educators teach an "approach to" common problems or chief concerns
  • Illness Script Day: focus on specific pathologies, often led by subspecialists
  • Resident Report: weekly/bi-weekly case presented by residents, facilitated by chief residents, focused on clinical reasoning and real-time management
  • Sub-specialty Series: various lectures given by fellows and faculty from IM sub-specialties
  • Interdisciplinary Series: examples include lectures from our speech pathology, PT/OT, pharmacy colleagues
  • In Situ Simulation: residents on service participate with their teams in a high fidelity peri-code/code simulation
  • Master Resident Clinician Series: residents solve interesting cases adapted from journals with an emphasis on fundamentals of diagnostic reasoning
  • Outpatient Noon Conference: monthly series in which a chief resident "interviews" an outpatient physician regarding a particular topic
  • Rapid Fire Journal Club: 3 landmark trials on a theme are presented by residents, with analysis by expert faculty discussants

West Los Angeles VA Teaching Conferences

At the West Los Angeles VA, a variety of interactive conferences are held twice a day on weekdays (morning report and noon conference). Some highlights:

  • Rounds of the GLA Teaching Service/Clinical Case Series: case presentation focused on clinical reasoning with input from subspecialists
  • VA GLA Case Discussion: interactive resident report with facilitation by a chief resident or hospitalist
  • VA GLA Clinical Unknown: case presented by a resident to a blinded faculty member to showcase clinical reasoning
  • VA GLA Medicine Podcast Club: interactive cases based on a podcast episode relevant to clinical practice
  • VA GLA Spaced Repetition: morning report recap of high yield learning points from recent cases to reinforce knowledge retention
  • In Situ Simulation: residents, pharmacy residents, and nurses participate in a multidisciplinary peri-code simulation
  • Faculty Lecture Series: by hospitalist, emergency medicine faculty, and infectious disease faculty on common topics
  • Asynchronous teaching on digital platforms including X/Twitter and YouTube
Internal Medicine Teaching Conferences