Unique Opportunity to Learn How to Teach

Kaeleen Anne Boden, M.D. 

Resident in Anesthesiology 

Brigham and Women's Hospital 

PGY 4

11/06/2020

Kaeleen Anne Boden, M.D. 

I am grateful that I was afforded the time to attend this course because it fulfils a major gap in clinical education. As developing leaders in our respective fields, we are expected to be educators for junior residents and medical students, yet we often receive little, if any, formal education on how to approach that responsibility effectively. This is the first time I had a platform to focus on ways to become an productive teacher for adult learners.

It is rare to have the opportunity to receive feedback on teaching style, techniques and strategy. In fact, I don’t think I fully realized how unique an opportunity this course offered until I presented my five-minute lecture to my peers. I had never had the opportunity to present a lecture with the sole purpose of receiving feedback on my teaching skills. I found the comments to be incredibly impactful and I hope to incorporate those tips into future lectures. It is so important to have this sort of experience during clinical training years because without a solid foundation in basic teaching theory we will struggle to become effective clinical educators in our career.

Mostly, after finishing this course I felt inspired by the stories brought to the table by my colleagues. Listening to their struggles and strategies to improve clinical teaching makes me feel confident in the upcoming generation of clinicians striving to make clinical education meaningful to both teachers and learners.

Thank you, COE!