Twelve tips for teaching and supervising post-graduate trainees in clinic

Abstract

By providing quality teaching and supervision, medical educators can contribute to productive and fulfilling outpatient experiences for postgraduate trainees (sometimes called residents, registrars, or GP trainees). The recent literature addressing practical steps to improve outpatient teaching is limited. Here we present specific trainee-centric behaviors, techniques, and language that educators can employ to enhance their teaching in the outpatient clinic, in the form of twelve tips. The first two tips pertain to navigating the patient-trainee-supervisor dynamic in the exam room, the next four address listening to an oral presentation, and the last six are tips on being an effective teacher and coach.

Keywords:

• Postgraduate
• clinical
• feedback
• ambulatory medicine
• medicine

Acknowledgements

The authors are indebted to Maryann Overland, MD for reviewing this manuscript. This work would not have been possible without the thoughtful contributions of internal medicine residents at the University of Washington.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Alexander A. Logan

Alexander Logan, MD, was a chief resident/VA clinician-teacher fellow, Department of Medicine, University of Washington, and VA Puget Sound Healthcare System, Seattle, Washington when this work was performed. He is currently a health sciences clinical instructor in the division of hospital medicine at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and the University of California, San Francisco.

Mayuree Rao

Mayuree Rao, MD, was a chief resident/VA clinician-teacher fellow, Department of Medicine, University of Washington, and VA Puget Sound Healthcare System, Seattle, Washington when this work was performed. She is currently a Health Services Research & Development Fellow at the same institution.

Ginger Evans

Ginger Evans, MD, is a clinical assistant professor in the division of general internal medicine at the VA Puget Sound and the University of Washington. She is also clinic education director for the internal medicine resident clinic at the VA Puget Sound.