Residents-as-teachers: A Needs Assessment of Residents' Teaching Skills in the Clinical Setting Using Direct Observation of Teaching

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Residents play a significant role in teaching undergraduate medical students though most residents have not received formal training in teaching and may be adopting ineffective teaching strategies. Many institutions have established a residents-as-teachers (RaT) programme to improve residents' teaching skills. However, many RaT programmes were established without a context-specific needs assessment. This study describes a need assessment survey of residents' teaching skills. The specific objectives of the study were to determine the residents' selfperceived and true learning needs for facilitating clinical teaching, the preferred important topics and methods of instruction for a RaT programme.

METHODS

This cross-sectional, prospective, observational, quantitative study involved self-assessment of residents' teaching skills and assessments of those residents by medical students and an observer during actual clinical bedside teachings using the Maastricht Clinical Teaching Questionnaire.

RESULTS

Thirty-nine (78%) out of 50 residents participated in the study, of which 20 agreed to direct observation of teaching. Sixty-two (85%) of the 73 medical students completed 82 evaluations of residents' teaching. The residents' self-perceived and true learning needs were in the domains of exploration, scaffolding, modelling, coaching and reflection. The leading preferred topics were communication skills, leadership, the teaching of procedural skills, and bedside teaching. The preferred methods of instruction were interactive sessions with teachers and working in small groups with a facilitator.

CONCLUSIONS

Residents performed well in creating a safe learning environment but were poor in exploration, scaffolding, modelling, coaching and reflection domains of teaching. These findings will inform the design of a tailor-made RaT programme.

Residents as teachers in Neurology: a Germany-wide survey on the involvement of neurological residents in clinical teaching

Background

Residents play an important role in the clinical training of medical students, spending up to 25% of their daily work teaching. In the US medical curriculum didactic courses for residents already exist and their role as a teacher is firmly anchored. In Germany, there are no fixed regulations or residents-as-teachers-programs. The aim of this study was to evaluate the activities of neurological residents in clinical teaching.

Methods

We conducted a prospective cross-sectional online survey among neurological residents in Germany. The evaluation was carried out descriptively and by means of text analysis.

Results

138 residents from 39 German neurological university hospitals answered the survey. Nearly half of them needed the teaching activity as part of their career planning. The residents are mostly involved in practical courses. More than 80% stated, that they enjoy teaching. 64% stated that there were no preparatory courses for teaching at their hospital/university. 78.4% of the respondents received no or merely insufficient feedback for their own teaching and 62.5% had only little or even no knowledge about the university curriculum.

Conclusions

By teaching medical students, residents play an outstanding role in recruiting students for neurology and, simultaneously, teaching leads an improvement in the residents’ own learning. To encourage young neurologists as teachers and—at the same time as learners—Clinic directors and universities should promote residents-as-teachers programs in neurology and reward the residents’ teaching activities.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s42466-022-00170-3.