Teaching residents to teach: An instructional program for training pediatric residents to precept third-year medical students in the ambulatory clinic

Objective: To provide second- and third-year pediatric residents with practical teaching skills for precepting third-year medical students in the outpatient clinic. Design: Educational intervention with 3-month follow-up of participants. Setting: University teaching hospital. Participants: Second- and third-year pediatric residents. Intervention: A curriculum for half-day workshop to provide residents with 6 key clinical teaching skills. Residents participated in the workshop and then were observed by trained faculty as they precepted third-year medical students in the pediatric clinic. Main Outcome Measure: Direct observation of resident-student precepting encounters, noting the presence or absence of their use of clinical teaching skills taught in the workshop. Results: Twenty-one of 23 pediatric residents participated in the workshop. Observation of 56 resident teaching encounters before and after the workshop showed that the residents improved their clinical teaching skills. Residents valued the workshop, and many suggested it should also be considered for faculty development. Conclusions: Residents can be taught clinical teaching skills in a half-day workshop. These skills also are applicable in various clinical venues. With the increasing interest in using community-based primary care physicians for student and resident education, this curriculum is well suited for training practicing clinicians to teach in their own practice sites.