Communication effectiveness training improves surgical resident teaching ability

An important educational objective of academic surgical programs is to train surgical teachers. Whether formal instruction of surgery residents in general principles of teaching has a role in the achievement of this objective is unproven.

We tested whether the teaching ability of surgery residents could be improved by two different interventions: (A) a lecture on communication effectiveness plus home study of their own videotaped lectures and (B) a critical review of their own videotaped lectures with a teaching consultant. Each resident taught four sessions. There was no intervention between sessions 1 and 2; intervention A occurred between sessions 2 and 3; and intervention B, between sessions 3 and 4. Each of the four videotaped sessions was graded for communication effectiveness using a standardized scoring form.

There were no significant differences between scores from lectures 1 and 2 (no intervention) or lectures 2 and 3 (intervention A). Intervention B (individualized feedback) resulted in significant improvement in all scores from session 4 compared with sessions 1 and 2: content 3.40 versus 2.98 (p = 0.01), language 3.43 versus 3.22 (p = 0.03), delivery 3.25 versus 2.87 (p = 0.002), and overall 3.43 versus 2.88 (p = 0.002).

Surgical resident teaching ability can be improved by communication effectiveness teaching. Individualized feedback is more effective than a lecture combined with self-study.