Twelve tips for preparing residents as teachers.

BACKGROUND Residents are frequently identified by medical students as their most frequent and memorable teachers; residents also teach their peers, junior and senior colleagues, other health professionals, and their patients. Many will teach in their future practice. Developing the skills to become a teacher is an important part of postgraduate education, and warrants a systematic, planned approach that may include many complementary learning opportunities. AIMS Our purpose is to describe one such approach: a 4-week elective experience in medical education offered to postgraduate learners. METHOD The paper describes the background and goals for the elective, and the various steps in planning, implementing, and evaluating such a course, drawing on the literature and mining our own experience for examples. Specifically, we address the following: needs assessment; the determination and selection of content, sequence, and teaching and learning methods; the experiential learning opportunities offered; and the emphasis on the participants' developing self-awareness of themselves as teachers, and as part of a community of teachers. RESULTS The program implementation, program evaluation, and response to feedback received are described. CONCLUSION A 4-week elective experience in medical education was positively received by participants.