Optimizing training: what clinicians have to offer and how to deliver it

Key tips for teaching in the clinical setting

Teaching with real patients in the clinical setting lies at the heart of health professional education, providing an essential component to clinical training. This is true of all the health disciplines - particularly medicine, nursing, dentistry, physiotherapy, and dietetics. Clinical tutorials orientate students to the culture and social aspects of the healthcare environment, and shape their professional values as they prepare for practice. These patient-based tutorials introduce students to the clinical environment in a supervised and structured manner, providing opportunities to participate in communication skills, history taking, physical examination, clinical reasoning, diagnosis and management. It is only through participation that new practices are learnt, and progressively, new tasks are undertaken. The aim of this paper is to provide health professional students and early career health professionals involved in peer and near peer teaching, with an overview of approaches and key tips for teaching in the clinical setting. Although there are many competencies developed by students in the clinical setting, our tips for teaching focus on the domains of medical knowledge, interpersonal and communication skills, and professionalism.

Peer teacher training for health professional students: a systematic review of formal programs

BACKGROUND

Skills in peer teaching, assessment and feedback are documented internationally as required graduate attributes for health professional students, placing emphasis on universities to prepare health professional graduates with teaching skills. The aim of this systematic review was to determine the rational, design, content and evaluation of student peer teacher training skills programs across the health professions.

METHODS

In October 2017, a search was conducted of five databases (Pubmed, Embase, CINAHL, ERIC and Cochrane Collection) using combinations of key search terms: 'Student as teacher', 'near-peer teaching', 'student teacher', 'peer teacher', 'peer-to-peer', 'undergraduate', 'medical education', 'curriculum', 'program', 'training', 'allied health', 'health science', 'pharmacy', 'nurse', and 'medicine', with results restricted to articles published in English within the decade. Articles were excluded if they were not original research, focused on a teaching approach other than peer assisted learning or teaching, did not adequately describe a student teacher training component of at least 3 hrs duration, or addressed only clinical skills training and not teaching skills training.

RESULTS

The two authors independently assessed 42 full-text articles for eligibility, with 19 articles satisfying criteria for inclusion. Dominating results were uni-disciplinary, faculty-led, non-mandated programs, targeting participants in senior years of training. Medicine was the dominant profession, with an obvious underrepresentation of the other health professions. Common program content included the foundations of education theory, teaching methods and techniques, and providing feedback. Summary and comparison of program design is restricted by gaps and inconsistencies in reporting, while the evaluation of programs remains largely subjective.

CONCLUSIONS

Teaching is increasingly recognised as a core professional skill across the health workforce, with expectations to teach peers and colleagues, within and across professional disciplines, as well as to educate patients. Students, faculty and institutes may benefit from training programs being designed for implementation in any health profession; and further to this, implemented within an interprofessionally context. Consistent reporting of teacher training programs, and objective methods of evaluation would enable more in-depth investigation.

Waking up your lecture

A core method of educating radiology trainees and practicing radiologists is through digital lectures, using Microsoft PowerPoint, Keynote, Prezi, Sliderocket or any number of software versions. Careful consideration of both the material to be presented as well as the visual format by which it is presented is critical for a successful lecture. Adult learners benefit substantially in comprehension and retention of material when allowed to interact with the teacher and the content. This article provides the educator with recommendations for constructing and presenting an effective and worthwhile lecture.

Engaging Medical Students in the Basic Science Years with Clinical Teaching

Education of future medical practitioners involves the stewarding of knowledge and skills, and the development of values required for responsible practice. Students must not only master a vast amount of knowledge and theory but also understand how to apply it. A key challenge for medical educators is to approach this in a balanced and integrated manner, particularly within the basic science years of the medical program. The purpose of this article is to consider how the clinical environment, teaching methods, assessment, and feedback impact on the engagement of junior medical students.

Motivational interviewing as a pedagogical approach in behavioral science education: "walking the talk"

Motivational Interviewing (MI) is an evidence-based approach to facilitating behavior change. This approach has been applied in multiple settings (e.g., healthcare, drug and alcohol treatment, psychotherapy, health and wellness coaching, etc.). This article applies MI in a pedagogical context with medical residents as a semi-directive, learner-centered teaching style for eliciting clinical behavior change. Herein we present the foundational theories that inform this approach, describe the process of teaching, address barriers and challenges, and conclude with a review of performance to date including residents' narrative accounts of their experience with the curriculum.

Developing and Maintaining Competency with Circulatory Assist Devices: How to Meet the Challenge

Heart failure is the only cardiovascular disease that is increasing in prevalence in developing countries. As a result, circulatory assist devices are being used more both as a bridge to heart transplantation and as destination therapy in patients with a failing heart. Nurses must become knowledgeable about these options for their patients. Developing and maintaining competency can be challenging as more devices become available. The principles of adult learners were used by one academic medical center to set up a new circulatory assist program and to maintain ongoing competency among staff working with patients who have these devices.