Resident as educator: a report on elective experience in medical education

Background: Background: Medical education is making a huge impact in medical institutions in the country. Residents are the future clinicians and educators for the country. Presently, the residents pursuing postgraduate training have an additional academic responsibility of teaching junior colleagues and medical students as well as planning and designing academic sessions for the residency program. Despite this crucial role, few residents have actually been trained as educators because in the conventional residency programs, mechanisms for enhancing resident educator skills are largely nonexistent. It is thus imperative for the programs to address to this upcoming and constant need. Objective: A nine week elective was undertaken by a third year family medicine resident in 2012 with an objective to obtain a background in medical education for a potential future role as an educator along with a competent clinician. Methods: This nine week elective was approved by College of Physicians and Surgeons of Pakistan (CPSP), undertaken at Department for Educational Development (DED) and, jointly supported by Postgraduate Medical Education (PGME) and Department of Family Medicine at The Aga Khan University. It was designed in a structured format intended to achieve the objectives to the maximum. It required the resident to complete an assigned task in a defined period followed by a discussion with a designated facilitator who was a faculty member of Department for Educational Development and a review and feedback by the elective supervisor from the same faculty. A one week introductory short course for clinical teaching skills designed by Department for Educational Development mainly for the faculty was also incorporated into the elective schedule approved and funded by Postgraduate Medical Education (PGME). Moreover, the resident was also required to design a research proposal in order to learn educational research. Results: This elective offered the resident a special opportunity to investigate components of clinical teaching–learning strategies, encounter and suggest means of improving them, design part of a curriculum and develop a series of instructional materials. The experience of one week introductory short course emphasized the skills for incorporating the educational strategies into future clinical and teaching practices. Conclusions: This elective helped resident achieve essential teaching skills, cultivate relationships with mentors and senior teaching faculty, and opened an avenue to develop as future clinician-educator. Key words: Keywords: medical education, medical education elective, resident as educato