The role of junior doctors in delivering effective clinical teaching
Editor – This is with reference to the interesting article titled ‘Participation in teaching opportunities during core medical training: barriers and enablers’ by Anyiam et al.1
The authors discuss an important but rather underutilised resource for clinical teaching. The role of junior doctors as teachers is often underemphasised despite the fact that their great potential in delivering effective near-peer teaching programmes has been established recently.2
Following ethical exemption by the University College London Committee, we distributed a similar survey to a small number of core medical trainees (CMTs) in two district hospitals in north east London in 2012, focusing on undergraduate teaching. The survey looked specifically at the barriers to the bedside teaching (BST) of undergraduate students faced by CMTs. Out of the 19 CMTs who responded, the majority (68%) described the frequency of proper BST they delivered to students as rare or occasional.3 In addition to time constraints, the trainees felt that the general lack of institutional appreciation of teaching and frequent interruptions on the wards were the major obstacles to BST. It also appeared that almost half of the CMTs did not receive any formal training on teaching skills.
Medical students and foundation doctors nowadays tend to be more in touch with core trainees on the wards as senior members of the teams are often expected to cover a wider range of clinical activities. Interestingly, a recent study in Keele Medical School showed that although consultants were perceived to be more knowledgeable, medical students felt more comfortable to have bedside teaching delivered to them by junior doctors.4 This finding does not undermine the value of clinical teaching delivered by seniors, but in essence, reflects the close relationship forged between medical students and junior doctors in the workplace, thus creating an excellent additional opportunity for clinical teaching.
While Anyiam et al highlighted a list of useful suggestion themes in their article, particularly incorporating teaching delivery formally into CMT job plans and training, curricula through regular protected teaching slots can help CMTs deliver high-quality and effective teaching and develop their teaching skills. Nonetheless, it is understandable that this intervention may prove challenging given the ever-rising clinical demands in the NHS and the associated short staffing. Offering formal free in-house training on teaching skills as part of the local CMT teaching programme is another important recommendation which may boost the engagement of CMTs with teaching and education.
- © Royal College of Physicians 2018. All rights reserved.
References
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- Anyiam O
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- Hashim A
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- Gray D
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