Residents as teachers of the pelvic floor and perineal anatomy.

CONTEXT

: As much as 50% of teaching is conducted by residents with limited clinical experience, pedagogical acumen or knowledge of the subject they teach.

OBJECTIVE

: The purpose was to develop a residents-as-teachers program that integrated a basic science curriculum of the pelvic floor and perineal anatomy with clinical correlations while instructing residents in certain clinical and pedagogical skills.

DESIGN

: A resident-as-teacher curriculum that focused on both the pedagogy and content related to pelvic floor and perineal anatomy was designed and collaboratively implemented by an anatomist, obstetrics/gynecology clinicians and a professional educator. It was implemented 4 times, with each session offered as a 3-hour training. A mixed-methods research design was used to study the impact of the resident-as-teacher program on the residents.

SETTING

: A medical school anatomy laboratory.

PATIENTS OR PARTICIPANTS

: A total of 51 residents in the Brigham and Women's Hospital/Massachusetts General Hospital Integrated Residency Training Program in Obstetrics and Gynecology (PG-1, -2, -3 and -4) and 4 Harvard Medical School students.

INTERVENTIONS

: Four 3-hour resident-as-teacher curricular sessions.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

: To understand the impact of an innovative resident-as-teacher curriculum on Obstetrics and Gynecology residents.

RESULTS

: The intervention significantly affected the residents' knowledge of pelvic floor and perineal anatomy and significantly increased the residents' comfort level with teaching pelvic floor and perineal anatomy. All the residents agreed that learning how to teach using clinical correlations and integrating the laboratory experience were excellent and that it was beneficial to be taught by the combination of clinical, anatomical and educational faculty.

CONCLUSIONS

: Teaching residents how to teach using a hands-on anatomical laboratory experience relevant to their daily work was overwhelmingly positive. The recommendation was to continue the program and implement the session at least biannually.