Training residents to be office-based teachers of family medicine.

Residents enjoy teaching and consider it an important aspect of their training and preparation for practice. Many residents devote a great deal of time to teaching activities, regardless of their future career plans. Teaching by residents contributes significantly to medical students’ education, with one study reporting that one third of medical students’ knowledge results from resident teaching, while in contrast, only 19% of knowledge results from faculty teaching. Despite their well-established teaching role, many residents receive little or no formal instruction in this important skill. Generally, efforts to enhance residents’ teaching skills have not been as intensive as those offered to faculty. By teaching medical students, residents can achieve the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) practicebased learning and improvement competency that states “Residents are expected to facilitate the learning of students and other health care professionals.” In addition, departments or programs that train residents to be teachers will fulfill the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) requirement ED-24 that “Residents who supervise or teach medical students . . . must be familiar with the educational objectives of the course or clerkship and be prepared for their roles in teaching and evaluation.” At the Sacred Heart Hospital residency, a faculty member and behavioral scientist train third-year residents to be teachers through a “Residents as Future Teachers” (RAFT) program conducted over 10–12 1-hour weekly sessions. The format of these sessions includes lectures, interactive discussions, video vignettes from the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine’s PEP2 tape (see Table 1, item 6) and role-playing sessions. Residents are also referred to multiple resources, including Web sites (see Table 1). The training essentially focuses on the qualities of adult learners; assessment of knowledge, attitude, and skills; tips for effective teaching; and the art of providing effective and useful feedback. The lead faculty also conducts a brief in-service for participating faculty so that they understand their role as supervisors and can effectively guide the residents as they teach. Residents who have completed the RAFT training program are allowed to conduct sessions in which William Huang, MD Feature Editor