A national needs assessment of emergency medicine resident-as-teacher curricula

Both the Liaison Committee on Medical Education and the Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education require residents to be engaged in teaching to develop skills as educators. Although proposed guidelines for an emergency medicine (EM) resident-as-teachers (RAT) curriculum were published in 2006, little has been published regarding RAT curriculum implementation or outcomes since. A crucial first step in developing a formal RAT curriculum for EM educators to pilot, implement, and evaluate is an assessment of current needs and practices related to RAT curricula in EM residencies. The aim of this study was to conduct a needs assessment of EM residency programs regarding RAT curricular resources and practices. We invited all EM residency programs to participate in a web-based survey assessing their current RAT curricula and needs. 28 % responded to our needs assessment. Amongst responding programs, 60 % had a RAT curriculum. Of programs with a required medical student rotation, 59 % had a RAT curriculum. Of programs without a RAT program, 14 % had a program in development, and 18 % had a teaching resident program without a curriculum. Most RAT programs (72 %) were lecture-based and the majority (66 %) evaluated using survey data. 84 % of respondent programs demonstrated a desire for a national RAT curriculum. We find that despite national mandates, a large portion of programs do not have a RAT curriculum in place. There is wide variation in core content and curriculum evaluation techniques among available curricula. A majority of respondents report interest in a standardized web-based curriculum as one potential solution to this problem. Our results may help inform collaborative efforts to develop a national EM RAT curriculum.