Residents-as-Teachers Curricula: A Critical Review

Abstract

Residents serve as medical students' primary teachers for practical clinical skills. The purpose of this study is to provide an updated systematic review of the literature on residents-as-teachers curricula to determine the most evidence-based curricula and evaluation strategy. In 2008, the authors performed a systematic review of the literature with PubMed using the MESH terms "internship and residency" and "teaching," as well as a key word search of the term "residents as teachers." The search was limited to publications in English from 1975 to 2008. A total of 24 studies met inclusion criteria. Eleven (45.8%) were uncontrolled studies, seven (29.2%) were randomized control trials, and six (25%) were nonrandomized controlled trials. The mean sample size of all studies was 39.6. Evaluation was performed by a variety of means including objective structured teaching exams (5; 20.8%), videotape evaluations (6; 25.0%), learner evaluations (11; 45.8%), and self-questionnaires (7; 29.2%). The mean intervention length was 7.6 hours, and the most common intervention was based on the One-Minute Preceptor. Research on residents-as-teachers curricula is limited by both the number of studies and their methodology. Despite this, the results demonstrated that residents-as-teachers curricula can significantly improve residents' teaching skills. In addition, the studies' methodologies have improved over time. Using these data, the authors recommend an evidence-based intervention and evaluation, which would include a three-hours-or-longer intervention (and, if possible, periodic reinforcement) based on the One-Minute Preceptor. The evaluation should be a randomized controlled trial using an objective structured teaching examination.