1115 - A Longitudinal Medical Education Program for Infectious Diseases Fellows

Background: Many Infectious Diseases (ID) fellows express interest in the education of future learners, yet there is little opportunity to develop these skills during training. We designed an immersive program to develop the teaching skills of ID fellows. We report our initial experiences and plans for future directions.

Methods: ID fellows were recruited to participate in the program after their first year. Enrollees had no changes to their clinical/research requirements. Faculty provided initial guidance on teaching techniques and instructed fellows on how to create a curriculum for medical student ID clinical rotations. This curriculum consisted of weekly teaching sessions led by the fellows and formatted to the fellows’ discretion. Teaching session goals were to provide education on high-yield topics at an appropriate level and in a separate environment from where student grading would be assigned. Fellows received faculty feedback on their teaching in real-time by direct observation and learner feedback by anonymous student survey. An annual survey also assessed the fellows’ experiences. Outcomes of interest included an evaluation of baseline teaching skills, experience designing a curriculum, and confidence teaching over time.

Results: Since its inception in 2017, 7 fellows have participated in the program. Teaching sessions consisted of various formats: lecture, roundtable discussion, case-based, and remote virtual conferences. Education sessions were well-received by students (Figure 1).
86% of enrollees reported only occasional lecturing experience prior to fellowship and requested additional training in design of an educational course (Table 1). After participation in the program, 57% rated their experience as better than expected and 100% agreed that fellow-led sessions should remain part of the rotation. After involvement, 57% reported strong interest in a career involving medical education.Figure1
Table1


Conclusion: We developed a structured, longitudinal medical education program dedicated to improving fellows’ skills as academic teaching physicians. Thus far, it has been well received by ID fellows and students. The program is ongoing and continues to adapt to the fellows’ and learners’ needs as determined by routine quantitative and qualitative assessments.