Clinical Teaching Skills – Learning to teach our teachers

Kyle Wu, MD
Resident in Neurological Surgery at Brigham and Women's Hospital
PGY-5

Teaching is fundamental to medical training.  It is simply not possible to go through the graduate medical education system without engaging in the education of peers, colleagues, and patients. As we have all had the privilege of accessing the minds of great mentors and teachers, standing upon their shoulders to improve our own knowledge and take better care of patients, it is our responsibility to provide these same opportunities to the rest of the medical community.

Almost as soon as we begin our medical training we are positioned to impact and influence the thoughts and minds of those around us. This potential, whether welcome or not, is further magnified as we ascend the medical hierarchy. For this reason, I believe that courses such as the

From left to right: Dr. Joshua Bernstock (PGY-1),

Dr. Linda Bi (Faculty), Dr. Kyle Wu (PGY-5),

Dr. Melissa Chua (PGY-1), and Dr. Saksham Gupta (PGY-1)

attending the 2019 Annual Society of Neurological

Surgeon’s Intern Boot Camp.

Clinical Teaching Skills course are essential for all trainees to experience, regardless of predisposition towards education. This course not only introduces the fascinating research and cognitive science behind learning while providing insight into how to connect with varying types of learners, it also forces the participant to self-reflect on how s/he fits within the same schema – making the teacher both a more effective teacher and learner.

Participating in this course has empowered me to take my understanding of an area that I have always been passionate about to the next level, preparing me to become a better resource for my colleagues. In addition, being exposed to a community of residents and faculty that will or have already dedicated their careers to teaching is invigorating and inspiring. As I transition through subsequent roles in my residency and career, I will be able to use the concrete skills, techniques, and frameworks that I have learned from this course to better connect and impact the medical education experience of learners like me.