Program Directors’ Opinions About Otolaryngology Resident Teaching Medical School Anatomy

Daniel O'Brien,Sarah Callaham,Michele M Carr,Tyler Wanstreet

doi:10.7759/cureus.10999

Daniel O'Brien, Sarah Callaham + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.10999

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Abstract

PurposeTo evaluate whether otolaryngology residency program directors (PDs) provide residents to teach pre-clinical medical students anatomy and to outline their perceptions of this practice.MethodsAn anonymous online survey was sent to active U.S. otolaryngology residency PDs in 2019, assessing each program’s involvement in teaching medical student anatomy.ResultsForty-five of 121 (37.1%) of surveyed otolaryngology PDs responded. Sixteen of the 44 (36.4%) residency programs that were associated with a medical school provided residents to teach anatomy (“Teaching Programs”). The 29 (64.4%) remaining programs did not provide residents (“Non-teaching Programs”). No significant differences were found between Teaching and Non-teaching Programs (P<0.05) for the size of the program, the presence of fellowships, the size of medical school, whether residents had won teaching awards, or the number of otolaryngology residency applicants from that school. In general, all PDs responded positively about residents teaching medical school anatomy. Non-teaching Programs primarily cited not being approached by the medical school as a reason for not providing residents to teach.ConclusionThe majority of respondent otolaryngology PDs have a positive view of residents teaching medical students but few do it. Otolaryngology departments will need to take the lead on developing opportunities to put students and residents together for anatomy education.

Highlights

Involving residents in the education of pre-clinical medical students has become a common practice in many medical schools
Sixteen of the 44 (36.4%) residency programs that were associated with a medical school provided residents to teach anatomy (“Teaching Programs”)
We found that program directors (PDs) whose residents were already teaching tended to view this process positively, and it was considered beneficial to the residents, medical students, and the residency program itself

Summary

Introduction

Involving residents in the education of pre-clinical medical students has become a common practice in many medical schools. Interacting with residents allows students to gain positive role models and gives them opportunities to seek one-on-one advice about medical education and learn about residency programs and resident lifestyles early in their medical school career [9] This practice has been shown to increase the confidence residents have in their teaching abilities and provides residents the opportunity to review anatomy in a low-stress environment [1,5,8,10]. These teaching skills may carry over into their future medical practice and improve the residents’ ability to teach their patients about their disease pathology and prognosis, surgical procedures, and the benefits and risks of medications. We surveyed otolaryngology residency program directors (PDs) to determine if their residents were teaching medical school anatomy, whether the PD perceived benefits from

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Discussion

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