Thought Provoking.

Denis T. Balaban, MD

Resident in Neurology 

Massachusetts General Hospital/Brigham and Women's Hospital 

PGY 4

11/11/2021 

Denis T. Balaban, M.D. 

I remember my delight when I learned that the word “doctor” comes from the Latin word for “teacher.” It beautifully described how I view the profession because I consider teaching to be one of the most important roles that doctors have. Sharing our knowledge of what patients’ symptoms mean, how an illness can affect their lives, and what we can do about it empowers them, giving them agency over their illness. Teaching students and residents about the practice of medicine on the wards can make significant differences in patient care and career choices.  Yet for how important teaching is, doctors receive little formal training on how to do it effectively. The Clinical Teaching Skills Course through the Centers of Expertise gave me the opportunity to discuss aspects of teaching with experts and peers to think about how I can hone my skills.

 Going into the course, I wanted to work on how to give every student and resident I work with tailored feedback on their performance. Sometimes I found that the most specific feedback I could give some students was “read more and continue to practice the neurologic exam,” which is about the most generic feedback anyone can give on a neurology service. After the course, I realized that when on the wards, one of the biggest obstacles to giving specific feedback was the time crunch on our service. The busier the service, the more I would view students’ and residents’ work through a lens of accomplishing tasks rather than thinking about their works’ areas of strength and improvement. When I’m back on the wards as the senior, I’m going to prepare a list of small, easy-to-make changes that I can incorporate into my daily routine to try to circumvent this tendency. My plan is that by implementing these changes, I’ll become an even better observer of my students and residents’ performance so that I can give them more specific and constructive feedback. I hope to never have “read more” as the main point of my evaluations again!