A unique approach to faculty development using an Observed Structured Teaching Encounter (OSTE).

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Healthcare Quality Improvement
• Physician Training

Background:

• Poor patient satisfaction scores (HCAHPS) and internal medicine resident (IMR) evaluations of attending physicians present significant challenges.
• Effective attending physician teaching and feedback are crucial for resident development and patient care.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess attending physician communication with interns.
• To improve attending physicians' teaching and feedback skills through a faculty development program.

Main Methods:

• An Observed Structured Teaching Encounter (OSTE) faculty development project was implemented.
• Sessions involved standardized patients, simulated intern encounters, checklists, and debriefing for emergency department (ED) attending physicians.
• Data collected included intern ratings, attending self-assessments, HCAHPS scores, and IMR evaluations pre- and post-OSTE.

Main Results:

• Attending physicians' teaching and feedback skills showed improvement between OSTE cases, with self-ratings higher than intern ratings.
• Mean HCAHPS scores increased from 22% to 30%, and mean IMR evaluations improved from 3.59 to 3.87 post-OSTE.
• While trends indicated improvement, statistical significance was not reached for all outcome measures.

Conclusions:

• Observed Structured Teaching Encounters (OSTE) demonstrate potential for enhancing attending physicians' skills.
• Regular OSTE interventions may lead to sustained improvements in attending physician performance, patient satisfaction, and resident training.
• Further investigation is warranted to achieve statistically significant improvements in HCAHPS and resident evaluations.