What we’re all about: Our educational philosophy
The RCFN looks to deliver entertaining and engaging educational content that can be accessed anywhere. It stands beside RCEM Learning, which is the college’s more conventional Virtual Learning Environment. The RCFN is informed by the following digital educational principles:
- It’s completely open access, which means that content can be accessed by anyone at any time. You don’t have to be an RCEM member or emergency medicine practitioner to access content.
- We exist within the very loosely defined #FOAMed community. We are not trying to replace traditional education but instead be a chatty and informal commentary to engage everyone in the fascinating and engaging nature of medicine.
- Don’t take anything you read or listen to here at face value. Most posts have references and further reading for you to go and make up your mind. Thinking critically is a key skill.
- All content is mapped to the RCEM curriculum; this ensures content has clinical and educational relevance, and it also improves user experience as it allows users to search for content according to educational or clinical interests.
- There’s no formal ‘assessable’ components to our content. In other words you won’t find any MCQs, SAQs etc. here; the content on the RCFN won’t generate certificates for your portfolio. If you’re looking for a certificate please have a look at the Exams and CPD section on RCEM Learning.
- This not to say that you can’t record your activity on the RCFN. If you learn something new or if you change your clinical practice following something you’ve listened to or read on the site write some reflective notes about it (which can demonstrate a change in higher-level metacognitive processes, to use the educational jargon) in a relevant portfolio (the RCEM CPD system, E-Portfolio etc.).
- Each submission has an open comments field where users of the network can feedback or ask questions about your submission. The dialogic nature of submissions is a core feature of FOAMed sites and discussion is always welcome be it on twitter or on the website itself. Keep it civil but challenging what’s been said is one of the most important things you can do.
What we produce:
- A monthly literature review podcast to keep people up to date with new and relevant literature
- A regular guideline review podcast to help you know the key points from national and international guidelines
- Podcast summaries from both RCEM and other conferences
- Podcast interviews with experts and enthusiasts from the UK and beyond
- Regular blogs to keep you learning and inspired with written content
Getting involved:
- We’re always keen to help people get involved in producing their own #FOAMed, it’s one of the reasons the RCFN was created.
- All submissions will have involvement and the direction of our editorial team. The team will be able to give you a better idea of what we’re looking for.
- Podcasts
- these should be interviews between two or more people, both well versed in the topic but with the interviewee as the expert. The John Hinds on Airway,London Trauma Conference: Chest Trauma, Top 10 Trauma Papers 2014-15 podcasts are good examples on the RCFN. Superficial Thrombophlebitis and other clotting quagmires from ERCast is another excellent example from another FOAMed site.
- these should have a chatty informality but need to be underpinned by high quality content
- audio quality matters. Submissions are often rejected due to poor quality audio
- Blogs
- we know that you may want to write a blog to immerse yourself in the FOAMed community, especially if this is your debut. Blogs should be visually similar to magazines; a chatty and engaging style is recommended, and they shouldn’t be too ‘texty’ or ‘textbooky.’ Each blog should roughly be between 750-2000 words long. Remember hyperlinking is your friend; embed or link to images, external sites/references, videos etc. Break text up into small paragraphs or bullet points.
Pitching your idea:
- if you have a topic you’re really passionate about and want to start producing some #FOAMed then we want you to pitch your idea to us as a blog (not more than 500 words). Send us this brief, written summary of what you’re passionate about and we’ll be in contact to discuss your idea and see how it develops
Funding:
- None of the contributors or editorial board receive any money for producing the content. We all work in a volunteer capacity because we love doing it
- Unlike many #FOAMed projects we are lucky enough have some financial support, specifically, the college kindly provide us with administrative and technical support (hosting, website design etc…) and provide expenses to attend occasional college meetings.
Tutorials:
Andy Neill, one of our editorial team, has produced these excellent video tutorials about producing FOAMed material. You can find them below
Recording a Solo Podcast
Rob Rogers on Twitter
Scott Weingart on getting started in FOAMed
Andy Neill’s Social Media Workshop
Equipment
Recording a Skype Interview
- Scott Weingart and Rob Orman discussing recording [player at bottom of page]
- Wikihow record with soundflower and line in
- Soundflower download
- Line In download
- Google Hangouts
Recording a Screencast