A Designated “Teaching Resident”: A Novel Leadership Position to Promote Educational Skills and an Academic Career

Abstract

CASE STUDIES IN TRAINING AND EDUCATION A Designated “Teaching Resident”: A Novel Leadership Position to Promote Educational Skills and an Academic Career Emily M. Webb, MD, Bren Ahearn, MA, David M. Naeger, MD DESCRIPTION OF THE PROBLEM Teaching is considered an essential competency during residency training. The ACGME requires that residents participate in the education of medical students as part of achieving compe- tency in “practice based learning and improvement” and “interpersonal communication” [1]. Furthermore, the Liaison Committee on Medical Education states that residents who supervise medical students “must be prepared for their roles in teaching and assessment” [2]. Beyond these man- dates, however, many resident trainees have an intrinsic interest in teaching, and encouraging and developing their skills may provide the impetus for a successful academic career. Students often describe residents as being among their most influential teachers in medical school [3]. Previous authors have shown that residents can be very effective educators, even as effective as faculty members in some cases [4]. Some radiology residency pro- grams have begun to develop training pathways for clinician educators that focus on obtaining teaching skills during residency [5]. Although these pathways have been described in only a limited fashion in the radiology litera- ture, across disciplines, they have been given a trial in various programs [5-9]. Formats for these programs range from four-week courses [8], to workshops, lectures, and seminars [10], to longi- tudinal experiences described as clini- cian educator pathways for residents that include mentorship, opportunity to develop teaching materials, and often an educational scholarship proj- ect [5,6]. Few programs seem to offer hands-on experience in curriculum design [6], and they rarely, if ever, include educational administration. To our knowledge, none of these pro- grams has any specific emphasis on medical student (as opposed to resi- dent) education in radiology. Our department has a well-developed, integrated medical school curriculum in radiology, and we encourage residents to participate in many of these teaching efforts. During the four-year curricu- lum, approximately 500 formal teaching hours are staffed by radiologists each year; approximately 75% of these hours are taught by faculty members, and the remainder by supervised resi- dents. We saw an opportunity to create a mentored, longitudinal experience, focused on medical student education in radiology, that would concentrate on the additional skills required by faculty clinician educators, including curricu- lum design and educational administra- tion. We hypothesized that designation of a “teaching resident” would en- courage participants’ interest in teach- ing, and their pursuit of an academic career, while increasing the efficiency of our medical student teaching programs. a 2016 American College of Radiology 1546-1440/15/$36.00 n http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jacr.2015.06.013 WHAT WAS DONE Program Creation In 2008, we designed a new leadership role in the residency for a rising third- year radiology resident, which we called the “Resident Liaison for Med- ical Student Education.” Interested residents apply (n ¼ 14 residents per class), and the best candidate is chosen through a competitive review and vote by the Departmental Medical Student Education Committee. The new “liaison,” or teaching resident, is formally announced each year in similar fashion to the chief residents. The liaison works directly with the two faculty members, adminis- trative leaders for medical student education in the department of radiology, as well as the main med- ical student education coordinator. Their primary tasks/roles include: n n n n n Maintaining a sign-up link on the residents’ website for medical school teaching, with an updated list of teaching opportunities; Recruiting residents for teaching roles in the medical school; Fostering enthusiasm for teaching among the residents; Helping to determine which residents are most qualified to take on more-advanced teaching assignments; Teaching (often the liaison teaches more than a typical resident).