Episode 69
Thoughts on AI from a Coordinator…
Educators in Medicine,
In this newsletter, we continue our journey through the fundamentals of AI, its applications in medicine, and its transformative role in faculty development and education. Let’s dive into learning.
This is a guest post from Meghan Coles, our wonderful residency program coordinator. She is a GME pro, and I am (so) grateful that she is such a forward thinker and problem solver. I suggest you share this with your respective coordinator - especially if they need encouragement to try. Have them subscribe for more use cases and tips coming.
I’m not new to my career, but I’m not at the end of it either. Caught somewhere in the middle of getting a social media account when it was only available to those with a .edu email and finding myself in a position where I’m looked to for my experience. As we end the academic year and many of us look towards ‘what’s next’ there are underlying questions of how AI will alter job functions and how to keep up with new technology.
After more than 15 years in higher education, I have come to appreciate the importance of continually strengthening efficiency, adaptability, and leadership skills to navigate an ever-evolving role successfully. Responsibilities and expectations continue to shift, requiring ongoing growth and flexibility. This evolution is especially evident in the coordinator role, which has expanded significantly in both scope and responsibility. What began as a primarily secretarial position focused on filing, scheduling, and manual paperwork evolved in the early 2000s with increased accreditation requirements and the transition to electronic management systems. Today, residency administrators oversee complex operational responsibilities including budgeting, strategic planning, recruitment branding, faculty and resident support, data analytics, and increasingly sophisticated scheduling and program demands.
I was in a retreat recently with a group of coordinators. We all laughed that we are paid as one full-time employee, but that the workload is at the level of at least one and a half people. The same group joked not long after that when recruiting new hires, one of the most common questions is about work-life balance. I feel it. There is a constant challenge of balancing the demands of an ever-growing workload while still being fully present with my family at the end of the day. It’s building a career, limiting burnout, and continually carrying the weight of a never-ending to-do list.
I’m fortunate to be in a position where AI has been embraced, not as a solution, but as a support function, a tool. Last year, I was working on schedules for 8 residents – balancing if/then relationships, finessing individual opportunities, personal requests, and managing complex and conflicting priorities. A lot of how I approach this work comes from the mentors who taught and guided me throughout my career. I learned by putting pen to paper and in many cases, working cell by cell in spreadsheets. I color-coded, reviewed, edited, and asked for help when needed.
Another year and eight more residents, effectively doubling every individual scenario and responsibility. I continue managing didactic plans, coordinating lecturers and guest speakers, and overseeing calendar invitations and scheduling logistics, but now on a larger scale. The role continued to expand; the core work remained the same, but the volume and complexity steadily increased. While the need for additional support was recognized and discussed, it often remained just out of reach due to limitations in finances, time, and space.
Then, my department supported a paid version of an AI platform. We were encouraged to play with it, use it where we felt it could be beneficial. Up until this point, I had only used one AI portal. I used it to make my emails smoother, more polished, more professional, or help to get my point across when the words wouldn’t come. The new platform allowed me to expand my requests into other tools I used daily – spreadsheets, documents, calendaring, creating forms and managing responses.
My world exploded.
Not only was I able to ask AI to do the task for me, but it was able to take what I asked and create something that I could use, share, and build upon. It’s not perfect. I’ve had to double-check my work and micro-manage my AI tool. I’ve had to use my experience to make appropriate adjustments and understand the make-up of my role to finesse the prompts so that I get the output I need.
At the same time, using AI has increased my productivity and ability leave the office at a reasonable time knowing that I can accomplish what used to take me weeks in just a few hours. Using AI has become a creative outlet. I’ve been able to build something fun and innovative. It has sparked new ideas and more ‘could we do this’ scenarios because I’m not held back by my own technical limitations. I can input the ‘what’ and ‘why’ while I lean on AI to know the ‘how’.
As the role of the coordinator continues to evolve in complexity, embracing AI has helped me adapt, grow, and work more efficiently. It has become a practical tool for managing the constant moving pieces of the job, staying organized, streamlining repetitive tasks - allowing me to be more intentional with the parts of the role that truly require personal connection.
More personally, it has helped me form a healthier balance between my career and life outside of work. By improving my efficiency during the day, I am better able to step away feeling accomplished and confident that meaningful progress was made. I don’t think the goal of AI is to replace the heart of the work. For me, it has created more room for the parts of the job that matter most — being present, helpful, and supportive – and hopefully, to do those parts better.
💌 As always, thanks for reading. Get in touch and let me know your thoughts!
Thank you for joining us on this adventure. Stay tuned for more AI insights, best practices, and more future editions of AI+MedEd.
For education and innovation,
Karim
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