Encouraging Student Interest in Teaching Through a Medical Student Teaching Competition

Abstract

Problem Clinician educators have realized the value not only of assigning teaching roles to medical students but also of offering explicit training in how to teach effectively. Despite this interest in the development of medical students’ teaching skills, formal teaching instruction and opportunities for practice are lacking. Approach To encourage medical student interest in teaching, the authors developed and implemented a medical student teaching competition (MSTC) at Emory University School of Medicine during the summers of 2014, 2015, and 2016. Each year, eight student finalists were each paired with a physician “teaching coach” and given one month to prepare for the MSTC. During the competition, each finalist delivered an eight-minute presentation to a panel of seven physician and resident judges. The authors describe the development, implementation, and assessment of the MSTC. Outcomes Approximately 150 medical students and faculty members attended the MSTC each year. The students in attendance felt that the MSTC made them more likely to seek out opportunities to learn how to teach effectively and to practice teaching. Additionally, some students are now more interested in learning about a career in academic medicine than they were before the MSTC. Next Steps Given the need for more formal initiatives dedicated to improving the teaching skills of doctors-in-training, including medical students, innovative solutions such as the MSTC may enhance a medical school’s existing curriculum and encourage student interest in teaching. The MSTC model may be generalizable to other medical schools.

Perception of Faculty Members of Regional Medical School Toward Faculty Development Program

“…From this study, it is very obvious that most staff members came from the non-innovative curriculum with significant response 0.05, yet they make use of attending and participating in FDAP, which indicates its usefulness in providing chances for learning new skills, as proved by other studies [26][27][28]. The study observed that 84% of the faculty members are interested in the presentation, which is in agreement with other studies [29,30], while 86% consider it as enriching their experience as teaching staff, which add a lot of skills to them, in finding that it is confirmed by other authorities (31). Despite the heavy work and follow-up on our presentation, the rate of positive perception of the staff to the topics is covers all medical domains, the outcomes as in any other studies might be explained by having innovative curriculum and perhaps the staff experience of assessing the presentations is well developed since the college started functioning FDAP three years ago.…”

The micro revolution: effect of Bite-Sized Teaching (BST) on learner engagement and learning in postgraduate medical education

“…Advantages of this approach include the ability to adapt quickly to shifts in context, content and learner needs [ 8 ]. To date, the BST model has been implemented in the postgraduate and undergraduate curricula at our institution [ 12 , 13 ] and other institutions including the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston University, and Medical College of Wisconsin. (Kerri Palamara McGrath, MD, email communication, October 2020; Gopal Yadavalli, MD, e-mail communication, February 2018; Marty Muniz, MD, and Pat Foy, MD, e-mail communication, June 2016).…”

“…Potential advantages of bite-size learning in health professions education include its ability to contend with cognitive load and ability to use this approach in concert other instructional strategies [ 5 ]. Early reports suggest this approach is feasible and viewed positively by learners in postgraduate and undergraduate medical education [ 12 , 13 ]. To date, literature is largely limited to descriptive report with limited exposure and outcomes reported [ 9 – 13 ].…”

“…Early reports suggest this approach is feasible and viewed positively by learners in postgraduate and undergraduate medical education [ 12 , 13 ]. To date, literature is largely limited to descriptive report with limited exposure and outcomes reported [ 9 – 13 ]. Evidence of the impact of bite-sized learning on learners and learning in medical education is lacking.…”

Professional Development Track to Prepare Future Academic Clinicians

“…Survey questions for section entitled “Student satisfaction with Existing Career Development Offerings” were adapted from Zink et al [ 6 ] and are listed in their entirety in Supplementary materials . The items in the section “Student agreement with Career Expectations” were adapted from DeSimone et al [ 9 ]. Open-ended questions were generated by the authors and vetted by a peer-audience for evaluation of purpose, wording, and intent of each survey item and revised as necessary to improve audience understanding and optimize item quality and reliability.…”