A Curriculum for Enhancing Physician Teaching Skills: The Value ofPhysician-Educator Partnerships

摘要

Developing as a physician requires an enormous amount of complex training, andquality of instruction greatly affects training outcomes. But while physiciansare expected to teach trainees within the clinic, they often do not receiveformal training in effective instructional practices. Providing facultydevelopment programs is one way that institutions can help physicians developteaching skills, but these programs often are developed without the input ofeducational specialists and not based in educational theory. In this methodologypaper, we describe a 5-module curriculum that was developed in across-disciplinary collaboration between instructional designers and physicianfaculty. By merging educational and medical expertise and using adult learningtheory with the Charlotte-Danielson educational framework, an essentials forclinical teaching educational endorsement program (ECTEEP) was created as afeature of the institutional curriculum within a large, urban teaching hospital.Here we describe how the program was developed through a physician-educatorpartnership, outline the program’s key content, and highlight essential aspectsof successful implementation. The ECTEEP incorporates active learning approacheswithin an abbreviated format, distilling 5 critical aspects of effectiveteaching that are relevant to the clinical environment: cultural humility andsafe learning environments, instruction practices for engaging learners,instruction and assessment strategies, receiving and giving feedback, andmentorship and coaching. A central feature of the program is that facilitatorsactively model the teaching behaviors they are conveying, which underscores thecritical importance of facilitator preparation and skill. Our curriculum isoffered here as a basic template for institutions that may want to establish aprogram for enhancing physician teaching skill.