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Clinical teaching fellows: everyone's a winner
Author(s) -
Woodfield Georgia,
O'Sullivan Marie
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
the clinical teacher
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.354
H-Index - 26
eISSN - 1743-498X
pISSN - 1743-4971
DOI - 10.1111/tct.12084
Subject(s) - curriculum , medical education , quality (philosophy) , teaching method , medicine , perspective (graphical) , clinical practice , psychology , pedagogy , nursing , computer science , epistemology , artificial intelligence , philosophy
Summary Background The principle teachers of the undergraduate medical curriculum are junior doctors and consultants, who may not necessarily be trained to teach. In addition, pressurised clinical environments may limit teaching time and decrease teaching quality. Clinical teaching fellows ( CTF s) are doctors employed to teach, often undergoing a teaching qualification. This makes them well placed to bridge this gap between clinical practice and medical education. Question How useful are CTF s as a teaching resource for medical students, from a student perspective? Methods This is an evaluation of CTF teaching from student perspectives, with discussion relating to the role of CTF s. Questionnaires were given to 70 final‐year medical students during the academic year 2011–2012. Questions related to teaching throughout medical school and involved scoring teaching numerically, with additional free‐text sections for qualitative data. Results A total of 38/70 (54%) students responded. All had received CTF teaching. All of the students said that CTF s were ‘extremely useful’ for teaching. There were many reasons given for this. Students also highlighted the managerial and pastoral benefits of CTF s. Discussion We believe that CTF s could be a useful asset in all medical schools by delivering high‐quality, reliable, standardised teaching for students, as an adjunct to consultant teaching, with additional managerial roles and trainee benefits. CTF s can benefit non‐ CTF trainees by facilitating and encouraging them to teach. CTF s can organise sessions and advise on curriculum topics, allowing trainees to deliver more targeted teaching. Teaching students may improve trainees' communication, management and leadership skills, which are useful for clinical practice.