Resident-as-teacher in family medicine: a CERA survey

Teaching has been increasingly recognized as a primary responsibility of residents. Residents enjoy teaching, and their majority report interest in the continuation of teaching activities after graduation. Resident-as-teacher programs have emerged nationally as a means of enhancing teaching skills. This study examined the current use of residents-as-teachers programs in family medicine residencies through a national survey of family medicine residency program directors.

This survey project was part of the Council of Academic Family Medicine Education Research Alliance (CERA) 2014 survey to family medicine program directors that was conducted between February 2014 and May 2014.

The response rate of the survey was 49.6% (224/451). The majority (85.8%) of residency programs offer residents formal instruction in teaching skills. The vast majority (95.6%) of programs mandated the training. The average total hours of teaching instruction residents receive while in residency training was 7.72. The residents are asked to formally evaluate the teaching instruction in 68.1% of the programs. Less than a quarter (22.6%) of residency programs offer the teaching instruction in collaboration with other programs. "Retreat, workshop, and seminars" were identified as the main form of instruction by 33.7% of programs. In 83.3% of programs not offering instruction, lack of resources was identified as the primary barrier.

The majority of family medicine residency programs provide resident-as-teacher instructions, which reflects increasing recognition of importance of the teaching role of residents. Further research is needed to assess the effectiveness of such instruction on residents' teaching skills and their attitudes toward teaching.