Teaching on the Fly: A Needs Assessment for an Ambulatory Resident-as-Teacher Workshop

Introduction: Residents play an important role in medical education, yet often feel unprepared without formal training. Teaching in the ambulatory setting raises unique challenges such as the difficulty of educating in a limited amount of time. We designed a brief, focused intervention as an initial needs assessment for a residents-as-teachers program in an ambulatory setting to address these concerns. Methods: A 1-day, 2.5-hour workshop was designed focusing on microskills, providing feedback, and ways to address common barriers in ambulatory teaching. Pre- and post-intervention surveys were conducted with both residents and medical students to assess the effects of the workshop on resident teaching in the clinic. Results: Although post-intervention surveys showed increased resident confidence and self-reported teaching behaviors, medical student surveys did not clearly demonstrate an increase in teaching behaviors. Didactic teaching on feedback and microskills with follow-on role playing were seen as the most helpful parts of the intervention. Conclusions: Self-assessment alone is an inadequate measure of effectiveness of our teaching intervention. While medical student data can help verify resident self-report, future iterations of our intervention should incorporate objective, third-party evaluation of teaching skill implementation.