A Vision for the Future of YPS
Jennifer Kanapicki, MD FAAEM
YPS Secretary/Treasurer
The AAEM Young Physician's Section (YPS) was established in 2006 to assist our young members as they transition through the early years of independent practice. The past five years have seen exponential growth for this section, and each year the board of directors has worked hard to provide more resources and opportunities for our members. We have created the CV & Cover Letter Review to perfect your CV. We have established the Mentor Program that pairs you up with a seasoned physician that can offer career advice and guidance. Want to break into the lecture circuit as a young physician? We have helped sponsor Open Mic at Scientific Assembly that gives you this chance. (You can find information about all our member benefits at www.ypsaaem.org).
We are very proud of what we have to offer...but still want to give you more. This led us to creating the 2011 Membership Survey we sent out asking you, our members, about what type of offerings you would like to see in the future. Here are the top five topics that came up and what we are doing about them.
- Legislation
In our survey, nearly 85% of our members said they joined YPS to learn more about the issues being supported by AAEM, with an outstanding 90% wanting to receive updates on important legislation.
We at AAEM pride ourselves in offering you a "one-stop" shop for federal legislative and regulatory information: The Legislative Action Center. This part of our website contains information on the important policy issues that AAEM is tracking for you. You can search congressional databases by name, state, committee, or leadership, and send messages to your legislators directly from the site. You can access information on elections and candidates (especially important given the upcoming presidential race). We even have a media guide to help you find your local news sources. Stay informed. Sign up on this website for AAEM email alerts to receive information on important policy issues or pieces of legislation that arise. Our Legislative Action Center can be found as a link under the advocacy page accessed through www.AAEM.org or you can go to http://capwiz.com/aaem/home/.
- Networking opportunities
50% of YPS members want more networking opportunities, and to help we have established an email listserv and Facebook fan page. Both offer a chance to interact with other YPS members, and we encourage you to post any topics of interest to start the conversation. Hopefully these will be a place members can use to ask questions to their colleagues, stimulate discussions, and allow for brainstorming.
Also part of increasing networking opportunities are mixers. Members want more opportunities to interact with their peers. Keep checking our website for updated information on our next social venture.
- More CME events
80% of our members said they were "somewhat likely or very likely" to attend a CME event. The majority people would like to see one every year. Chicago was the most popular choice for a midwest event so we are tentatively planning an event for August 2012 in the Windy City. Be on the lookout for more details this spring.
- Mentoring
Our mentoring program is designed to provide young physicians with an opportunity to be paired with a seasoned physician who can offer advice, share experiences, and provide career guidance. According to the survey, nearly 25% of members had "never heard of it." We want to change this! We hope to reach out to more people so they can utilize this amazing benefit. We are currently expanding our mentor pool and hope to automatically enroll recent residency graduates in the program. If you haven’t already done so, become a mentor/mentee at: https://www.aaem.org/forms/mentors/.
- Access to publish in AAEM's Common Sense Newsletter
Almost half of our members found access to publish in AAEM's Common Sense newsletter "very valuable." However, in reality there haven’t been many submissions from our members. To help motivate and inspire you to pick up your pens, we are implementing a contest that will award a $25 gift card and year of free membership to any YPS member whose article is accepted for publication in Common Sense. So, please write for us! We are always looking for new people to add their knowledge and opinions to Common Sense. Please contact info@ypsaaem.org for information and submission.
In summary, you, our members, have spoken and we, your board, are listening. We are always striving to make YPS better for you and fully plan to make your ideas reality. Please browse our website, and take advantage of all we have to offer. You want something I didn’t mention? We accept late submissions, so write us and let us know.