Meaningful Education Events

One of the hardest parts of my job is arguably planning educational events. Residents aren't interested in going to an educational event when al the do is attend educational classes. But, like all programing, there is an easy way to get residents to attend these events, if you make them enjoyable.

In an earlier blog post, I wrote about how to get residents to attend events, but now I'm going to talk more in-depth about planning these meaningful, educational events that are the bane of my existence. Even I struggle to plan these, and event planning is my minor! But here's the deal: it's all about planning events that residents want to attend. Planning an educational event about a topic that doesn't resonate with residents and having it be a lecture event won't guarantee residents. In fact, they probably won't attend at all because of that. The last thing a resident wants to do is attend lecture classes, and then a lecture event.

So, how do you plan these events? If you aren't stuck with a theme (like I am), find out what your residents are interested in, and then plan! In the past, before educational themes were chosen for us, I did a fun educational event about bees and honey, and took my residents to our college campus's apiary. We learned about bees, learned about honey, then I went back to the hall and we had a tea party (with honey) to talk about the importance of bees, the importance of honey, and how honey can be a great substitute for sugar and other ingredients. Residents loved this event - it had a great turn out, and it was something they were interested in. I found a topic they were interested in, had a hands-on activity, than did a debrief.

What if you can't pick the theme? Now, my college picks the theme for us, and it makes it harder to plan for these events when I don't have an option about what my residents may or may not be interested in. The key here is that your events need to be hands on, engaging, and still meaningful. Keep far away from lecture events, and make sure you're giving your residents the right information. A good way to do this is engaging in an event, and then debriefing. Having those conversations are important, and letting residents do most of the talking is important. Even if they aren't keen on the conversations at first, keep silent and let them talk. Last month, I did a sexual assault event that included a simulation where residents were being "drugged" with different types of candy, and they had to try and figure out who drugged them (similar to heads up, seven up). We talked about how that made them feel, and how they felt not knowing who had drugged them and how you can't always trust people at parties. There was plenty more to the event, but this is an example of a game and then a debrief about what they learned.

Two years ago, I did a drug and alcohol event where I had residents wearing drunk goggles while playing mario cart. It had a huge turn out, but it wasn't educational. My residents had a lot of fun, but learned absolutely nothing. At first, I felt like it had been successful, but then I realized, it had just ben fun. So, when planning events, there needs to be an equal balance of fun and educational. Talking about what they're doing, talking through their learning, and bouncing ideas off of each other is incredibly important. Let your residents do the talking and the learning. A good rule of thumb that I use is the 20/80 rule, where the RA should only talk about 20% of the time during an event, and the rest of the 80% should be residents talking to each other in an educational setting. This keeps the RA from lecturing, and allows the residents to talk amongst themselves.

I hope this helps you all plan out fun, meaningful educational events! And remember, attendance doesn't mean your event was successful or not - I'd say the content and how the residents learned it is what makes an event successful.