The resident as teacher: Medical students' perception in a Spanish university

Residents play an important but scanty assessed role in medical students teaching. The aim of this study was to assess the perception of medical students about residents' teaching activity.

Autofilled survey provided to medical students of the University of Alcalá (Spain) in the final year in their school of medicine. Student opinion about care and teaching abilities of residents and physicians was evaluated using a 5-point Likert scale.

104 surveys were collected. A 69,9% of students consider that as much as 50% of their knowledge came from rounds with residents. Students believe that resident teaching lacks enough academical acknowledgment (94.2%); they estimate necessary to acquire teaching skills during residency (82,7%), and they would like to provide tutoring other medical students (88,5%). Students rated residents better than physicians on relational and motivational abilities.

There is a positive view about resident as a teacher among medical students, which suggests the need to improve the resident's teaching skills.