Anesthesiology Residents-as-Teachers Program: A Pilot Study

Abstract

The role of residents as teachers has grown over time. Programs have been established within various specialties to formally develop these skills. Anesthesiology residents are frequently asked to provide supervision for novice learners and have numerous opportunities for teaching skills and clinical decision making. Yet, there are no educational programs described in the literature to train anesthesiology residents to teach novice learners. To explore whether a resident-as-teacher program would increase anesthesiology residents' self-reported teaching skills. An 8-session interactive Anesthesiology Residents-as-Teachers (ART) Program was developed to emphasize 6 key teaching skills. During a 2-year period, 14 anesthesiology residents attended the ART program. The primary outcome measure was resident self-assessment of their teaching skills across 14 teaching domains, before and 6months after the ART program. Residents also evaluated the workshops for quality with a 9-item, postworkshop survey. Paired t testing was used for analysis. Resident self-assessment led to a mean increase in teaching skills of 1.04 in a 5-point Likert scale (P < .001). Residents reported the greatest improvement in writing/using teaching objectives (+1.29, P < .001), teaching at the bedside (+1.57, P = .002), and leading case discussions (+1.64, P = .001). Residents rated the workshops 4.2 out of 5 (3.9-4.7). Residents rated their teaching skills as significantly improved in 13 of 14 teaching domains after participation in the ART program. The educational program required few resources and was rated highly by residents.