TEACHING SKILLS IMPROVEMENT PROGRAMS IN UNITED-STATES INTERNAL-MEDICINE RESIDENCIES

The prevalence and nature of resident teaching skills improvement prog rammes (TSIP) are unknown. Although residents perceive themselves as i mportant teachers of students, there is little information on how prog ramme directors (PDs) view residents as teachers. A comprehensive ques tionnaire was sent to all 428 US internal medicine PDs in December 199 0, of which 60% (n = 259) responded. Of the 259 responding programmes, only 20% (n = 51) had TSIPs. Characteristics of TSIPs were not unifor m. Mean instructional time was 9 hours (range, 1-24 hours). The teache r most frequently utilized to develop and facilitate the TSIP was the PD. PDs from residencies with a TSIP indicated more strongly than PDs without a TSIP that residents contributed to students' learning. Fifty -one per cent of TSIPs required residents to attend. Evaluation/feedba ck as a teaching method was the most common topic covered in TSIPs. Lo ng-term assessment of teaching skills after programme participation wa s done in 15% of TSIPs. Although PDs value the resident's role as teac her, current TSIPs in internal medicine residencies are few in number and lack standardization. PDs' attitudes probably influence whether re sidents are taught teaching skills and whether teaching skills are eva luated. Further investigation of appropiate curriculum for TSIPs and a ssessment of long-term effectiveness of TSIPs are needed.