A Longitudinal Competency-Based Residents-As-Teachers Online Program: A Pilot Study Across Multiple Medical Specialties

Junior doctors play an important role as clinical educators; however, practical systematic programs that cultivate their teaching skills are not well established. While existing Residents-as-Teachers (RaT) programs predominantly consist of one-off workshops, the feasibility of a competency-based, longitudinal, multi-institutional online model remains essentially unexplored.

We developed a one-year longitudinal online RaT program based on teaching competencies identified in our previous study using a modified Delphi method. This study evaluated the feasibility of that program for junior physicians across multiple medical specialties using Bowen's feasibility framework.

Thirty-seven junior physicians (postgraduate years 3-8) from 26 institutions across Japan participated in an online program consisting of nine modules, each 90 minutes in length, delivered over five sessions (one module in the first session; two modules per session in sessions 2-5). The curriculum was grounded in Kolb's experiential learning model. Feasibility was assessed across the three domains of acceptability, implementation, and practicality.

The overall perceived value of the program was high at 4.5/5.0 (response rate 54.1%). Attendance rates ranged from 64.9% to 94.6% (mean 78.1%) across all modules. Average submission rates for pre-session and post-session assignments were 77.7% and 58.0%, respectively. The completion rate within the same program year was 56.8% (21/37). There were no dropouts. The lowest participation rate was observed for the motivation module (64.9%) and the lowest perceived value for the communication modules (4.1/5.0).

This competency-based, longitudinal online RaT program demonstrated high feasibility as a pilot learning initiative for junior physicians across multiple medical specialties. Future studies should focus on optimizing the program workload and measuring behavioral changes in teaching using objective indicators.