Abstract
BackgroundFor academic physicians, teaching represents an essential skill. The proliferation of educator training programs aimed at residents and medical students signals the increasing commitment of training programs to develop teaching skills in their trainees as early as possible. However, clinical fellowships represent an important opportunity to advance training as educators. In addition to enriching the pipeline of future teachers, developing fellows as teachers augments the training experience for more junior trainees and may impact patient care. Fellows’ needs for programs to improve teaching skills have been largely unexplored.MethodsWe conducted a multi-institutional needs assessment of internal medicine (IM) subspecialty fellows to gauge interest in teaching and improvement of teaching skills. We surveyed IM subspecialty fellows at three academic medical centers about their access to fellow-as-teacher programs and other mechanisms to improve their teaching skills during fellowship. We also elicited their attitudes towards teaching and interest in training related to teaching skills.ResultsOne hundred eighty-three fellows representing 20 programs and nine different subspecialties responded to the survey (48% response rate). The majority of participants (67%) reported having no specific training focused on teaching skills and only 12% reported receiving regular feedback about their teaching during their fellowship. Seventy-nine percent of fellows anticipated teaching to be part of their careers, and 22% planned to participate in medical education scholarship. Fellows reported a strong interest in teaching and programs aimed at improving their teaching skills.ConclusionsThe majority of fellows reported a lack of mechanisms to advance their teaching skills as fellows, despite anticipating teaching to be an important aspect of their future careers and having strong interest in such programs. Our findings at three academic medical centers confirm a lost opportunity among subspecialty fellowships to accelerate teaching skills development for future educators.
Highlights
For academic physicians, teaching represents an essential skill
Increasing availability of educator training programs, including those designed for trainees, supports the premise that skill development should start as early as possible in order to enhance the important role of physicians as teachers [1,2,3]
The purpose of our work was to assess the needs among Internal Medicine subspecialty fellows at three large academic medical centers toward career development as educators, their attitudes towards teaching, improvement of their teaching skills and interest in pursuing careers in medical education
Summary
The proliferation of educator training programs aimed at residents and medical students signals the increasing commitment of training programs to develop teaching skills in their trainees as early as possible. Increasing availability of educator training programs, including those designed for trainees, supports the premise that skill development should start as early as possible in order to enhance the important role of physicians as teachers [1,2,3]. Little is known about Internal Medicine subspecialty fellows’ needs for programs that develop their skills in teaching [10]. The purpose of our work was to assess the needs among Internal Medicine subspecialty fellows at three large academic medical centers toward career development as educators, their attitudes towards teaching, improvement of their teaching skills and interest in pursuing careers in medical education.
Published Version (Free)
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.