Training student doctors to become educators

Introduction: Doctors are expected to teach from a very early stage in their foundation training, often without prior formal instruction in clinical teaching skills. We provided a course with an aim of providing newly qualified doctors with the skills to teach students and peers.

Methods: We developed two, half day courses which ran over subsequent years, addressing feedback from the first course to allow improvement. Sessions included Teaching Theory, Teaching Your Peers and Teaching for Your Learning and Portfolio, with small group discussions also incorporated into the second course.

Results: Results from the second course showed 100% of delegates rated each individual session either ‘Good’ or ‘Very Good’. 70% felt that this day should be compulsory for all new doctors. Delegates were contacted six months into their foundation posts for further, reflective feedback. Of 14 responses, 100% felt this course should be delivered again and all respondents felt more confident in teaching compared to their peers.

Conclusions: We propose that formal education in Clinical teaching should be provided to students at undergraduate level. We suggest this could be made a compulsory part of the curriculum or during hospital inductions or at least offered as student selected components.