COE Clinical Teaching Skills Rocks!!!

Caroline Cubbison, MD

Internal Medicine Resident at NSMC Salem Hospital
PGY-2

I loved the COE Clinical Teaching Skills course which I attended last October. As a newly minted second year resident I was always looking for ways to achieve more teaching at the bedside that would engage my entire team including medical students and fellow residents without taking too much time from our work flow. Naturally, I prepared a bedside teaching scenario to practice at the COE course. The feedback I received from my peers was extremely valuable and I was also able to identify areas I wanted to improve upon after watching my video. I also took to heart setting goals for each day/week/month.

Anneris Estevez demonstrates her amazing subclavian
artery auscultation skills to confirm that I do not
have a bruit to suggest GCA (neither did our patient, by the way!)

The next day as we prepared for rounds, I asked each team member to set a small learning objective for the day: something bite sized and attainable. We then made a list with everyone’s goals. As rounds went on, I was able to connect people’s small learning objective to patients on the floor (i.e.: how to titrate insulin based on glucose curves as requested by the medical student) and it made for a very rewarding day. I also implemented my practice teaching scenario on stethoscope assisted percussion for lung examination at the bedside and was able get all team members to perform it, including my attending! I felt like my team was more energized and enthusiastic about learning since we were able to tie it our objectives to direct patient care. As an additional bonus, a week later on night float we were admitting an elderly female with unilateral headache and I recalled the bedside teaching scenario Megan had prepared on giant cell arteritis and was able to pass along some fun physical exam tricks, including subclavian auscultation, I learned from her presentation to the intern working with me!