Learning How to be a Better Clinical Teacher with Resident/Fellows from a Variety of Specialities

Blair Robinson, MD MPH

MGH Internal Medicine Residency
PGY1

The Clinical Educator Teaching Course allowed me to learn from other residents and fellows from a wide range of specialities. The course was lead by leaders in the education at Partners Healthcare who have a presence nation wide. Despite being such prominent instructors, they allowed the students in the course to come to their own conclusions through mostly a "flipped classroom" approach. 

MGH Medicine Residents and Fellows Learning from one another

From left to right Gabriel Bromberg,

Blair Robinson (me),

Meghan Lockwood, Stephanie Kiser,

Hawra Al-Lawati, and Dana Larsen

This style of teaching allowed the group to explore areas that were most pertinent to our work and educational goals. As a intern, just 4 months into residency, I found particular value in hearing about the challenges and solutions that upper level residents and fellows faced in creating a positive teaching environment that caters to all level of learners. No matter what the future holds for my career, I want to be a great clinical educator who is able to discover what makes learners tick and helps empower them to reach their goals. Taking this course as an intern set me on track to do just that. By giving me concrete strategies for sharing knowledge and feedback, this course gave me more confidence in approaching rotations where I will be teaching medical students. Over the next few years, as a junior and senior resident, teaching will compose a larger and larger portion of my clinical role and I'm excited to delve into those roles with a better sense of the evidence of how to be an effective teacher to adult learners. Given that teaching each other and learning from each other is such a large component of residency and fellowship training programs, it's important that trainees are exposed to courses like this during their training. More formal training on teaching and mentoring will also enhance the learning oriented culture in our training programs, which will have impacts on decades of trainees to come.