title: Weekly e-mailed teaching tips and reading material influence teaching among general surgery residents.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  A nonintrusive e-mail reminder incorporating teaching tips and manuscripts was developed to supplement resident-as-teacher curricula.
  
  
  METHODS
  Ten high-yield manuscripts and 10 teaching tips exemplifying the themes of mentorship or role modeling, teaching methods, adult learning theory, feedback, and the resident role of teaching were distributed to general surgery house staff through a weekly e-mail series. House staff completed surveys before and after the 20-week e-mail series.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Thirty (43%) and 28 (40%) respondents completed the pre-e-mail and post-e-mail survey, respectively. Residents found teaching tips to be more helpful than manuscripts. Weekly e-mail reminders were "just right" in frequency according to 74% of respondents. Forty percent of residents felt the weekly e-mails helped them teach more often and 50% of residents changed their teaching style.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Weekly reminders are an easy way to encourage resident teaching without a significant resident time commitment. Residents typically find teaching tips to be more useful than manuscripts.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, 330 Brookline Avenue, Stoneman 9, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
authors.forename: Ammara A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Watkins
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, 330 Brookline Avenue, Stoneman 9, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
authors.forename: Stephen P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Gondek
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, 330 Brookline Avenue, Stoneman 9, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
authors.forename: Kiran H
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Lagisetty
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, 330 Brookline Avenue, Stoneman 9, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
authors.forename: Manuel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Castillo-Angeles
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, 330 Brookline Avenue, Stoneman 9, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
authors.forename: Sidharta P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Gangadharan
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, 330 Brookline Avenue, Stoneman 9, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
authors.forename: Michael J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Cahalane
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, 330 Brookline Avenue, Stoneman 9, Boston, MA 02215, USA. Electronic address: tkent@bidmc.harvard.edu.
authors.forename: Tara S
authors.initials: TS
authors.lastname: Kent
mesh_terms: D003479:Curriculum; D034742:Electronic Mail; D000068156:Formative Feedback; D013502:General Surgery / Q000193:education*; D006801:Humans; D007396:Internship and Residency; D013663:Teaching / Q000193:education*; D013664:Teaching Materials
keywords: E-mail series; Resident teaching; Teaching tips