Use of critical incidents to develop a rating form for resident evaluation of faculty teaching.
BACKGROUND
Monitoring the teaching effectiveness of attending physicians is important to enhancing the quality of graduate medical education.


METHODS
We used a critical incident technique with 35 residents representing a cross-section of programmes in a teaching hospital to develop a 23-item rating form. We obtained ratings of 11 attending physicians in internal medicine and general surgery from 54 residents. We performed linear and logistic regression analysis to relate the items on the form to the residents' overall ratings of the attending physicians and the programme directors' ratings of the attending physicians.


RESULTS
The residents rated the attending physicians highly in most areas, but lower in provision of feedback, clarity of written communication and cost-effectiveness in making clinical decisions. When we used the residents' overall ratings as the criterion, the most important aspects of attending physicians' teaching were clarity of written communication, cost-effectiveness, commitment of time and energy and whether the resident would refer a family member or friend to the physician. When we used the programme directors' ratings as the criterion, the additional important aspects of performance were concern for the residents' professional well-being, knowledge of the literature and the delivery of clear verbal and written communication.


CONCLUSIONS
The critical incident technique can be used to develop an instrument that demonstrates content and construct validity. We found that residents consider commitment of time to teaching and clinical effectiveness to be the most important dimensions of faculty teaching. Other important dimensions include written and verbal communication, cost-effectiveness and concern for residents' professional development.
Silber
Cynthia
C
Jefferson Medical College, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19107, USA. cynthia.silber@jefferson.edu
Novielli
Karen
K
Paskin
David
D
Brigham
Timothy
T
Kairys
John
J
Kane
Gregory
G
Veloski
Jon
J
D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D004503:Education, Medical, Graduate / Q000592:standards*; D007396:Internship and Residency / Q000592:standards*; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D010820:Physicians / Q000592:standards*; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D013663:Teaching / Q000592:standards*