NJMS - The Medical Education Fellowship (Elective)

Rationale

Teaching is a core expectation for resident physicians, however, they receive little formal education and training for this role in medical school. Studies have suggested that as the clinical responsibilities and stress of residency increase, participation and interest in teaching decreases. Providing medical students with a dedicated time to focus on developing effective teaching skills prior to beginning their residency program may ultimately promote increased quantity and quality of teaching during residency.

Goals

The goal of this 4-week elective is to provide 4th year medical students formal instruction on medical education, and to provide an opportunity to specifically focus on improving their clinical teaching and didactic presentation skills. Students will have the opportunity to explore learning and teaching theories to examine their own learning and teaching, as well as to develop a teaching philosophy that will inform and guide them in their future role as a resident physician. In addition, students will be exposed to educational evaluation and research in order to develop systems that examine the impact of teaching.

Objectives

Students will be able to:

1. Use the "Resident-as-Teacher" model as a clinical teaching modality.
2. Develop a teaching philosophy that is based on the teaching and learning theories in the assigned readings and includes anecdotes of their own teaching experience.
3. Describe the relationship between educational goals and behavioral objectives, and provide examples of each.
4. Demonstrate characteristics of effective presentation skills.
5. Identify and classify quantitative research studies by study design, and provide an evaluation of the threats to the internal and external validity of several common quantitative research designs.
6. Design and conduct an evaluation of an educational program using both quantitative and qualitative methods.

Educational Plan

The elective will be four 40 hour weeks. Activities will be scheduled to allow for as many of the following activities as possible:

• Learning & teaching theories: The student will be provided time and guidance on developing a written teaching philosophy. Assigned reading required.


• Clinical Teaching: The student will be assigned to complete twelve 4-hour clinical teaching shifts. Some of the shifts will occur in Internal Medicine, and others in Emergency Medicine (if 3rd year elective students are present). In addition, students may seek to conduct clinical teaching shifts in the specialty of their choice with the respective clerkship director's permission. They will shadow 3rd year students, especially observing and teaching at the bedside. Clinical teaching will be opportunistic according to the activity and patient case-mix in the department at the time, but concentrated on history and physical examination skills, clinical reasoning and decision making, practical clinical knowledge, communication skills, and professional skills and attitudes, including skills in departmental management.


• Morning Report: The student will lead at least one morning report during the Thursday morning teaching conference in Internal Medicine.


• Clinical Skills Center: The student will be responsible for scheduling 8 hours at the Clinical Skills Center to assist 3rd year students that are seeking pre-OSCE assistance.


• Evaluation: The student will develop and conduct an evaluation that uses both quantitative and qualitative methods to evaluate a specific area of a course or clerkship (with director's permission). Alternatively, they may conduct a general medical education evaluation project using primary sources. For example: What are the concerns of rising 3rd year students prior to beginning their first clinical clerkship? What are the specific educational needs of faculty members within a department? Assigned reading required.


• Educational Research: The student will have the opportunity to participate in the development of an educational research project. Alternatively, they may assist in ongoing projects. Assigned reading required.


• Presentation: The student will develop a PowerPoint presentation to present a selected educational research article to faculty and students. This will include creating flyers to post around campus to advertise the presentation to faculty and students. Assigned reading required.


• Test Item-Writing: The student will have the opportunity to consult with basic scientists to offer clinical vignette suggestions for basic science exam questions. Assigned reading required.


• Education Meetings: The student will attend all curriculum meetings and Office of Education meetings where appropriate.

Assessment

The final grade will be computed based on: