Building a Healthy Learning Environment for Young Medical Professionals: Alexandria Reynolds, PhD

WATCH TIME: 5 minutes

"Being able to step away from the traditional ‘I’m going to stand up here, you’re going to take notes, you’re going to listen to me, and you’re not going to have opportunities to discuss this,’ [approach] is probably not the best strategy for teaching."

The gap between demand for and supply for neurologic services is widening due to several factors, including an aging population increasingly afflicted with neurodegenerative disorders, a volume of referrals that do not warrant neurologist intervention, and in some regions, neurologists choosing to practice subspecialties that are not among those most urgently required. This ongoing shortage of neurologists remains a critical challenge for the medical community, and has forced educators across the nation to take a closer look at the process of neurology education and how it can be improved.

At the 2023 SLEEP Annual Meeting, held June 3-7, in Indianapolis, Indiana, Alexandria Reynolds, PhD, presented a talk on equitable teaching practices, covering the best current methods, ways to increase equity and inclusion in the classroom, and policies and procedures for equitable grading. Reynolds, an undergraduate program director at the University of South Carolina, discussed several topics such as reducing bias, critical first days of teaching a new class, and a universal design for learning.

Following the meeting, Reynolds sat down for an interview to comment on the ways to build healthy learning atmospheres to attract and keep young medical professionals in the field. She stressed the need to connect with younger generations, try to understand their backgrounds, and how they feel comfortable learning material. In addition, she warns young professionals about the dangers of social media, missinformation, and the portrayal of certain subspecialties.

Click here for more coverage of SLEEP 2023.