Are residents and interns prepared for teaching? Perceptions of undergraduate and graduate medical students

Abstract

Every doctor is expected to be competent in teaching. There are few initiatives to prepare medical students for this role. To explore residents (graduate students) and interns (final year undergraduate students) perceptions of the importance of acquiring teaching skills and how prepared they feel to meet this role. To determine the importance that undergraduate students give to such teaching. Residents and interns participated in focus groups, and completed the Medical Education Readiness Questionnaire (METRQ), 5th year medical students were also invited to complete it. Three hundred and seventy seven subjects answered the questionnaire. The perceived importance of having teaching skills was 6.1 +/-1.2 among residents and 5.7 +/- 1.6 among interns, in a scale 1 to 7. Their perception of their own preparation for teaching was 4.3 +/- 1.6 for both groups in the same scale. Students evaluated the preparation of the residents for teaching as 5.2 +/- 1.6 and that of the interns as 4.4 +/-1.7. Seventy-eight percent of 5th year medical students reported to learn more than two. 5 hours a week from residents. Fifty-nine percent of residents and 66% of interns reported to teach up to 2.5 hours per week to the same students. Focus groups participants agreed that teaching is an important role for a physician, and that to do it properly requires personal characteristics, along with teaching skills. They also found that the best opportunities to learn how to teach are during practical training. CONCLUSIONS. Our study contributes to the recognition of the teaching role of physicians and the need for teaching training among medical students.