Teaching residents to teach: A pilot study for an innovative online curriculum

Introduction

Resident-as-teacher (RAT) curricula have improved teaching behavior, ability, and confidence among resident participants. However, there are limited data on the appropriate format, length, and content. With teaching being a core residency competency and residents delivering one-third of student teaching in the clinical setting, properly training residents in clinical teaching is essential. We created a formal, scalable, asynchronous RAT curriculum. We report the pilot implementation of this curriculum along with feasibility, user acceptability, and preliminary knowledge outcomes.

Methods

In this pilot pre–post interventional study, senior emergency medicine residents completed a formalized online education curriculum during their “teach month.” The curriculum consisted of three online modules completed weekly over a 4-week rotation. Topics included adult learning, assessment and feedback, and group teaching. Several surveys were sent to residents before and after curriculum implementation. The surveys rated satisfaction and asked several education-specific knowledge questions to assess learning. Ratings were analyzed using means and confidence intervals (95%). Knowledge questions were graded and then analyzed by ANOVA and Fisher's LSD test.

Results

After the online modules were completed, the intervention group residents’ mean score on knowledge questions was significantly higher than that prior to the curriculum and significantly higher than that the control group (previous graduated residents; 6.00 vs. 2.70, p = 0.0001; and 6.00 vs. 3.00, p = 0.0003, respectively). This score was maintained 3 months after completing the online modules. Intervention group residents were more satisfied with the online education resources than the control group (p = 0.048).

Conclusions

Residents participating in a formalized online curriculum during their teach month demonstrate a high comprehension of education concepts and increased satisfaction with the provided educational resources and report high satisfaction with the teach month. Our pilot study suggests that a short online education-focused curriculum is an effective method of providing RAT training and may be applicable to clinical teachers across specialties and experience levels.