Teaching Experiences of Family Medicine Residents: Toward an Encompassing Teaching Framework

Canadian family medicine (FM) residency programs are required to provide teaching opportunities to trainees to enable the development of teaching skills in order for residents to become the next generation of FM teachers. The College of Family Physicians of Canada's Fundamental Teaching Activities (FTA) Framework outlines the roles, tasks, and activities expected of FM teachers across three domains: Clinical Preceptor, Teacher Outside the Clinical Setting, and Educational Leader. The purpose of this study was to describe resident teaching opportunities within a Canadian FM residency program and examine the degree to which they align with the domains of the FTA Framework.

This was a qualitative study employing one-on-one semistructured virtual interviews with 10 rural and urban FM residents and 12 academic teachers from May 2021 to May 2022. Interviews explored FM resident teaching opportunities, including the setting where the teaching occurred, who the learners were, and the teaching topics. Qualitative, iterative thematic data analysis techniques were used with a coding template.

Mapping resident teaching opportunities onto the FTA Framework required some modifications. The Clinical Preceptor domain was refined to Clinical Teacher; the Teacher Outside the Clinical Setting domain remained unchanged; and a new domain of Educational Collaborator emerged. Resident teaching opportunities spanned diverse settings, including outpatient clinics, inpatient hospital wards, large/small groups, and one-on-one sessions. These activities included direct clinical teaching, curriculum development, and peer education.

The study findings suggest that a FM resident-specific teaching framework is warranted to help guide residents and academic teachers to optimize FM resident teaching opportunities.