Hi #MedTwitter! I know there's a lot of craziness going on in the world but I'm still going to take a moment to talk about #MedEd on this lovely Fall Sunday. I posted re #CognitiveLoad this week, and I wanted to touch on one component of that today: extraneous load. 1/

Extraneous load is basically the extra work / stress you carry when the appropriate tools are not provided to you to best succeed in completing a task. It comes from the way information is presented to learners / the design of the instructional materials (or lack thereof). 2/

#MedStudentTwitter feels this when they get a lecture without clear learning objectives. #InternTwitter when they're asked to report data w/out being shown how to collect it. & all of us when we are given any task without a scaffolding provided on which we can lay the bricks. 3/

So how can we help our trainees build the house we are asking for? We have to provide them with tools (& scaffolding!) to offload this extraneous load! 4/

This means that NOT everything you teach HAS to be medicine (gasp!). Teaching how to study, how to search PubMed, how to review results (& time mark! ), how to make a ddx, how to present, how to manage time, etc, are some of the best lessons we can give our trainees! 5/

So this week, before you get upset that your students aren't up to par or your new team isn't meeting your expectations, think about the extraneous load they are carrying, and offer to offload some of that for them! 6/

& as always, remember this basic premise: everyone means well and is trying their best! (Thx to @Capt_Ammonia for teaching me that one. ) Alright, now off to the wards with y'all! Happy Sunday! & congrats 'terns for making it 1/4 of the way through! You got this! 7/7