The impact of a "Residents as Teachers" Workshop at one year follow-up

"Residents as Teachers" (RaT) Workshops have been implemented in many General Surgery residency programs to improve resident teaching ability. The aim of this project was to assess whether there was significant degradation of teaching skills and knowledge one year after a RaT workshop.

A 4-h interactive workshop was delivered at an academic general surgery residency program. Pre- and post-workshop assessments evaluated participants' knowledge and confidence regarding teaching skills and they were re-evaluated one-year later.

On a 5-point Likert scale, residents improved confidence and self-perception following the workshop was stable after one year. A decrease was found in the resident's perception of the education-related training received and scores on the knowledge-based questions.

The confidence residents obtained from single-day RaT workshop was maintained at one year, but the knowledge was not. Resident perception of their educational training may benefit from more frequent reinforcement.