Purpose
Limited time is one of the biggest barriers faced by faculty engaging in medical education research. Additional barriers include a lack of experience with qualitative methods and limited avenues for getting feedback during the writing process. Writing groups can offer some assistance with these barriers, but many fall short on some aspects, particularly those that involve having to read other’s work prior to showing up to the writing group. We describe the structure and outcomes of a novel writing group format that attempts to address all three barriers above.

Methods
During this first year, the group committed to meeting 1.5 hours/month (online). The first hour of the session was either for ‘sharing’ or a ‘topic of interest’. For sharing sessions, 1-2 faculty would voluntarily sign up to share a piece of writing, analysis, or brainstorm out loud with colleagues (2 sign ups, 2 small groups). Sharers brought something that could be reviewed in 20-25mins of the session (i.e., no ‘pre-/homework’). Others would review or listen and provide feedback. Facilitators planned ‘topic of interest’ sessions to respond to group needs, such as an introduction to qualitative methods. The last 30mins is used for independent writing time.

Results
Twelve faculty signed up to participate during our first year (starting in June 2024). We’ve held 6 sessions: 3 topic of interest and 3 sharing (5 faculty shared, in total). Our mid-point survey showed participants as being satisfied (25%) or very satisfied (75%) with the overall structure of the group. End-point survey data and facilitator-noted challenges will be discussed in the poster.

Conclusion
While our participating group is relatively small, the participants appear to value the time and structure thus far. We believe learning about this format of writing group, particularly one that requires no outside time for reviewers, would be valuable for conference attendees.