Resident and Fellow Section Activities

Communication Issues and Tools
Section members have discussed repeatedly ways to ensure the future pipeline of RFS leaders.  It is understood that residency is a difficult time to get involved in organized medicine.  Ideas for maintaining involvement/increasing involvement include:

• Change TexMed meeting to a Friday evening dinner meeting;
• Hold meetings at residency programs, i.e., brown bag lunches;
• Ask the TMA president to visit with house staff council while at visits with deans;
• Provide educational programming to large residency programs;
• Record and distribute sessions for residents who cannot attend onsite meetings;
• Provide conference call options for RFS business meetings; and
• Distribute a monthly electronic newsletter.

A monthly TMA electronic newsletter tailored to the interests of resident physicians was designed and is now being distributed. Residents active in the section are working with TMA staff to ensure that the messaging and issues are on target and relevant to TMA resident membership.

Director's Desk, an online system designed to help organizations' boards of directors, committees, etc. conduct business and stay in touch without or between "physical" meetings now is being used by the section. The RFS has been utilizing this new tool to communicate between meetings, post important documents for review, and discuss issues of importance. The RFS has found it a very useful tool in meeting some of its goals to better connect with members.

Resident Recruitment
TMA and county medical society staff are working to recruit new incoming residents who "matched" on March 16th. Resident recruitment always has been a challenge due to the delay in receiving "match" data. The delay has led to problems securing contact information to use in recruitment efforts. This year TMA staff looked for ways to overcome the delays. First, fourth-year medical students in Texas were sent an e-mail update asking for their residency program name and new contact information. Additionally, a resident update mailing was sent asking for the same information. Current student chapter officers on each campus are sending e-mails to their fourth-year students asking them to update their information with TMA and to take advantage of their "free" resident membership through Dec 31. A letter and application inviting incoming out-of-state residents and Texas residents to join the association will be mailed prior to resident orientations.

Last year, staff attended all but one of the large residency program orientations across the state.  Resident recruitment efforts will continue utilizing relationships with house staff coordinators, section leadership, and local county societies.  Due to the large volume of applications received during the summer months and the fact that many county medical society approval bodies do not meet, residents will be notified about delays in processing their applications. This e-mail will give staff the opportunity to thank residents for their application and interest while also updating them on the status of their application.

Recruitment of newly licensed physicians remains a top priority.  Staff follow a step-by-step process for multiple touches and follow up. This model has been so successful that TMA staff are using this model to develop other recruitment efforts utilizing this approach. During 2005, over 900 newly licensed physicians joined TMA. This included 651 physicians and 278 residents. TMA staff plan to continue aggressive marketing in the hopes of increasing overall membership in this key market segment.

Resident Participation
RFS leadership is committed to efforts that will increase leadership development and opportunities for involvement by residents in the RFS and in organized medicine. The section is encouraging and supporting members for AMA positions, and considering a resolution asking for a resident on the TMA Board of Trustees.

TMA House of Delegates: TexMed 2006