Clinical teachers' views on how teaching teams deliver and manage residency training

Residents learn by working in a multidisciplinary context, in different locations, with many clinical teachers. Although clinical teachers are collectively responsible for residency training, little is known about the way teaching teams function.

We conducted a qualitative study to explore clinical teachers' views on how teaching teams deliver residency training.

Data were collected during six focus group interviews in 2010.

The analysis revealed seven teamwork themes: (1) clinical teachers were more passionate about clinical expertise than about knowledge of teaching and teamwork; (2) residents needed to be informed about clinical teachers' shared expectations; (3) the role of the programme director in the teaching team needed further clarification; (4) the main topics of discussion in teaching teams were resident performance and the division of teaching tasks; (5) the structural elements of the organisation of residency training were clear; (6) clinical teachers had difficulty giving and receiving feedback and (7) clinical teachers felt under pressure to be accountable for team performance to external parties.

The clinical teachers did not consider teamwork to be of any great significance to residency training. Teachers' views of professionalism and their own experiences as residents may explain their non-teamwork directed attitude. Efforts to strengthen teamwork within teaching teams may impact positively on the quality of residency training.