Premium
The perceptions of attending doctors of the role of residents as teachers of undergraduate clinical students
Author(s) -
Busari Jamiu O,
Scherpbier Albert J J A,
Van Der Vleuten Cees P M,
Essed Gerard G M
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
medical education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.776
H-Index - 138
eISSN - 1365-2923
pISSN - 0308-0110
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-2923.2003.01436.x
Subject(s) - perception , medical education , medicine , family medicine , psychology , neuroscience
Introduction Much of undergraduate clinical teaching is provided by residents. An earlier study showed the attitude of residents towards teaching to be generally positive. Little is known, however, about attending doctors' views on their own and residents' roles as teachers of medical students. Objectives To examine attending doctors' perceptions of the (dis)advantages of resident teaching, their own teaching abilities and the need for a teacher training programme for residents. Method A questionnaire survey of 76 attending doctors was carried out in the Departments of Obstetrics & Gynaecology and Paediatrics at the teaching hospitals of the Universities of Maastricht and Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Results Attending doctors perceive teaching by residents to be beneficial for students and residents alike. Although they consider themselves to be better suited than residents to teach medical students, they see teaching as an integral part of residency training and feel it should be recognised as such by departments and medical schools. Attending doctors are in favour of a teacher training programme for residents, which should include communication, clinical and teaching skills as well as skills such as time management and (self‐) assessment. Discussion Despite the uneven distribution of participants between the departments, no significant differences were found between departments. It is interesting that attending doctors perceive teacher training as beneficial to residents' teaching skills, but provide more feedback on residents' attitudes than on their teaching. The results show that, in general, attending doctors share residents' views that teaching is an important component of residency and that a teacher training programme for residents is to be recommended.