Resident psychiatrists as assessors for lectures in continued medical education in psychiatry

We examined the quality of instruction in a continued medical education course and the correspondence between the residents and lecturers evaluations of the program.

Resident psychiatrists and instructors completed structured evaluation forms immediately following each lecture in a psychiatry course for one academic year.

Residents' and lecturers' evaluations of goal achievement, but not general ratings of lecture quality correlated positively. Instructors' enthusiasm, clarity and appropriateness of subject matter and encouragement of independent thinking, but not audio-visual aids significantly correlated with resident's positive evaluations.

Ongoing evaluation of classroom lectures by resident psychiatrists may provide valuable feedback to instructors and impact the quality of medical education. The "classic" role of the teacher organization and enthusiasm are the most important components of quality education.