“Practice Makes Perfect”: Evaluation of a Teaching Elective to Enhance Resident Educator Skills

Background: The ACGME requires residents to participate in the education of learners and be effective teachers. However, clinical responsibilities may limit resident teaching on inpatient services, and residents seldom receive feedback on teaching, hindering their growth as educators. A local needs assessment confirmed 96% of residents reported inadequate experience with teaching. We thus created the Teaching Elective At Children’s Hospital (“TEACH”) to enhance resident educator skills.

Methods: We implemented TEACH (2-3 week elective) on Hospital Medicine teams. Following reading and video assignments, TEACH residents led small group teaching sessions and provided feedback to learners after observing rounds and other clinical tasks. TEACH residents’ teaching sessions were directly observed by faculty, co-residents, and learners who gave written feedback using the Direct Observation of Teaching Evaluation (“DOTE”). TEACH residents’ feedback sessions with learners were directly observed by faculty who provided written feedback using the Direct Observation of Feedback (“DOF”). At the end of the elective, TEACH residents completed a retrospective pre/post-survey to assess the course’s impact on their clinical educator skills. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics.

Results: Eleven residents completed TEACH between July and December 2020. All residents strongly agreed/agreed they could teach small groups effectively and give valuable feedback after completing TEACH. All reported TEACH was “very helpful” in improving their teaching skills. Each TEACH resident received a mean of 9 DOTEs; 100% of faculty and learners strongly agreed/agreed that residents demonstrated effective teaching across the domains of medical knowledge, learner-centered education, and communication skills. Each TEACH resident received a mean of 2 DOFs; these residents frequently asked for learners’ perspectives first and provided positive and corrective feedback on medical knowledge and communication skills. They less often probed for action planning or learner understanding of patient perceptions and feelings (Table 1).

Conclusion: TEACH provided residents with multiple opportunities to practice teaching and feedback to learners while receiving timely and focused feedback on these behaviors, honing their educator skills. Next steps include curriculum enhancement to further optimize these skills, such as eliciting action plans from learners.