title: The Efficacy of Residents as Teachers in an Ophthalmology Module.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Resident physicians have reported spending upward of 25% of their time teaching fellow residents and medical students. Until relatively recently, there have not been formal requirements in residency programs to learn teaching skills. The first goal of this study was to develop a novel residents-as-teachers training program to educate Ophthalmology residents on facilitating group learning and emphasizing critical-thinking skills. The second goal was to educate residents on how to teach clinical reasoning skills.
  
  
  METHODS
  We designed a longitudinal residents-as-teachers program that consisted of a 2-hour workshop, voluntary observation of their teaching in the small group, and student feedback on their teaching. The focus of the workshop was to educate the residents on how to facilitate critical thinking and clinical reasoning in a small group format. Voluntary video recording of residents' teaching was offered, and feedback on their teaching was provided.
  
  
  METHODS
  Yale University School of Medicine, Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Science.
  
  
  METHODS
  In total, ten second-year medical student groups consisting of approximately 7 to 11 students in each group were organized in this course and each group had one teacher: 4 senior Ophthalmology residents and 6 community faculty.
  
  
  RESULTS
  This study found that the resident teachers who completed the residents-as-teachers program were equally as effective as community faculty teachers in building medical students' comprehension of ophthalmic principles during small group seminars according to the students' evaluation of teaching performance. We also found that all of the medical students' responses were overwhelmingly positive toward having residents as teachers. The medical students particularly noted residents' preparedness and effectiveness in facilitating a discussion during the small group seminars.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our novel program was effective at teaching residents how to teach critical-thinking skills and the resident teachers were well received by medical students in the classroom. Given the requirement that residents learn teaching skills during residency and our preliminary success, we plan to continue inviting residents to teach small group seminars in Ophthalmology, and we will continue to provide them with the residents-as-teachers program.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Science, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut. Electronic address: Peter.Ryg@yale.edu.
authors.forename: Peter A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Ryg
authors.affiliation: Teaching and Learning Center, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut.
authors.forename: Janet P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Hafler
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Science, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut.
authors.forename: Susan H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Forster
mesh_terms: D003237:Connecticut; D004501:Education, Medical; D004521:Educational Measurement; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007396:Internship and Residency / Q000592:standards*; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D009885:Ophthalmology / Q000193:education*; D013663:Teaching / Q000592:standards*; D014741:Video Recording; D000078329:Workforce
keywords: Interpersonal and Communication Skills; Medical Knowledge; Practice-Based Learning and Improvement; Professionalism; medical education; ophthalmology; resident education; resident-as-teacher