Resident evaluation of clinical teachers based on teachers' certification

To examine the influence of emergency medicine (EM) certification of clinical teaching faculty on evaluations provided by residents.

A prospective cohort analysis was conducted of assessments between July 1994 and July 2000 on residents' evaluations of EM faculty at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada. Resident- and faculty-related variables were entered anonymously using the validated evaluation tool (ER Scale). Credentialing and demographic information on EM faculty was supplemented by data obtained through a nine-question survey. Groups were compared using ANOVA.

The 562 residents returned 705 (91%) valid evaluation sheets on 115 EM faculty members. The four domains of didactic teaching, clinical teaching, approachability, and helpfulness were assessed. The majority of ratings were in the very good or superb categories for each domain. Instructors with certification in EM had higher scores in didactic, clinical teaching compared with others, and teachers without national certification scored lower in the helpful and approachable categories (p < 0.05). The route of obtaining EM certifications either through training or practice eligibility did not affect scores. Instructors under the age of 40 years had higher scores than the older age groups in three of four categories (p < 0.05). Instructors working at the teaching sites on a half-time basis received higher scores than those working full-time, and scores varied based on site. Overall, teaching ratings improved over the study period (p < 0.05).

Significant differences exist among instructors in the EM setting that affect their teaching rating scores. National certification in EM, academic track, rotation year, and site are all correlated with better teaching performance.