Doctors as teachers: what do they think?
OBJECTIVE
To assess the views of senior medical officers (SMOs) at Auckland City Hospital (Auckland, New Zealand) in the areas of teaching, supervision, and feedback for resident medical officers (RMOs).


METHODS
All SMOs at Auckland City Hospital were asked to complete a survey regarding postgraduate medical education. Data was then collected and entered into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and was statistically analysed. P values were calculated using Chi-squared testing and Fisher's exact test.


RESULTS
237/730 surveys were received giving a response rate of 32.1%. There was a statistically significant difference between SMOs self-rated competence (SRC) and their perceived required competence (RC) in the domains of 'Teaching' (SRC=3.74; RC=4.36 - p<0.0001), 'Supervision' (SRC=3.78; RC=4.37 - p<0.0001) and 'Feedback' (SRC=3.55; RC=4.36 - p<0.0001). Ratings were done on a 5-point Likert scale where a score of 1 was poor and a score of 5 was excellent. SMOs were then asked whether they required further information around various postgraduate medical education topics. 79.9% requested information on 'managing the poorly performing RMO'. Dual employees (i.e. SMOs employed by both the University of Auckland and Auckland City Hospital) were more likely to have attended a 'Teach the Teacher Course' (66.6%) than those SMOs only employed by Auckland City Hospital (43.3%, p=0.0083). A number of factors were also identified as barriers to conducting effective teaching. These included a lack of time, high clinical workload, poor continuity between trainees and SMOs, and a lack of recognition for teaching roles of SMOs.


CONCLUSIONS
Our study showed a gap between the perceived self-rated competence and required competence in SMOs in their role as teachers. There is also a perceived gap in support for SMOs in their role as teachers and the expected educational outcomes for trainees within the New Zealand clinical setting.
McCann
Lloyd J
LJ
Auckland District Health Board, Private Bag, Auckland, New Zealand.
Naden
Gill
G
Child
Stephen
S
D000328:Adult; D002983:Clinical Competence; D015510:Clinical Medicine / Q000193:education*; D004503:Education, Medical, Graduate / Q000592:standards / Q000639:trends; D005260:Female; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006786:Hospitals, Urban; D006801:Humans; D007318:Inservice Training / Q000592:standards* / Q000639:trends; D007396:Internship and Residency; D007400:Interprofessional Relations; D008297:Male; D008505:Medical Staff, Hospital; D008875:Middle Aged; D009520:New Zealand; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000592:standards / Q000639:trends; D011336:Probability; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D020377:Self Efficacy; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires