Clinical Teaching Skills - Learning to Teach.

Michael D. Salt, D.O. 

Pediatric Critical Care Fellow at MGH

PGY 5

12/03/2019

So much of medical education and our careers are built on our ability to both learn and teach.  Aside from patient care, teaching our peers and juniors is arguably the most important aspect of our job.  Despite this, we as trainees don’t get much education on how to perform well at either of these skills outside of “see one, do one, teach one”.  Having educational experiences like the clinical teaching skills course is exactly what we should all be taught along the way. 

From a learner perspective, it was very useful to hear about the different concepts and methods to retain information more effectively.  We have all experienced the frustration of reading papers or chapters with limited retention of the subject.  Going forward, I will be able to tailor my approach to learning to be more efficient and systematic. 

I think the most valuable lesson and insight I took from this course was the difference between a learning-oriented and performance-oriented individual.  From an educator standpoint, recognizing that learners have different drives is really important.  Furthermore, this course shows the importance of fostering a culture where education and knowledge are the true goals.  Creating the type of environment where self-improvement is valued more than peer to peer comparison can refocus everyone’s energy.  I hope that trying to cultivate this type of environment will have positive effects on medical students and residents as they rotate with us.  

The small group teaching sessions were also very helpful.  It is a very different focus when a group is evaluating your abilities to teach as opposed to your content specifically.  Getting feedback of how you delivered your information, its appropriateness for the situation you describe, and for the level of learners was really great.  I would encourage everyone to ask their mentors and seniors to evaluate their teaching sessions in this manner. 

I couldn’t recommend this course more.  I wish I had been able to take this earlier on in my training and would love to take more courses surrounding this topic in the future.