Using the Objective Structured Teaching Ecounter to Assess Resident Teaching Skills

Residents are often the primary educators for medical students during their clinical years. Residency training programs are therefore responsible for providing resident educator training. This, in turn, requires an assessment tool to ensure residents demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and behaviors required for their teaching responsibilities. To this end, a rating scale was developed and applied during an objective structured teaching encounter (OSTE). The purposes of this study were to gather qualitative impressions of family medicine residents regarding participation in the OSTE and reliability evidence for the OSTE instrument.

All 41 family medicine residents participated in the study. Prior to the OSTE, residents received instruction on the five microskills clinical teaching model. Medical students assisted as standardized learners for the encounter and faculty served as assessors. We conducted focus groups to solicit resident feedback.

Residents demonstrated evidence of the five microskills. Feedback on the OSTE process from the interns was positive, noting that the experience helped increase their confidence to teach, as well as provided a useful method to practice a teaching strategy. The assessment tool evidenced good internal consistency and interrater reliability.

The OSTE is an easy-to-implement and reliable method for resident educator skill assessment that left residents feeling more confident and better equipped to give constructive feedback during teaching encounters.