“Residents-as-teachers”: survey on perception and experience of surgical and orthopaedic residents in undergraduate medical education

Abstract

<p><u>Background</u></p><p><br></p><p>Surgical and orthopaedic residents are tasked with teaching undergraduate medical students, which can be difficult given their clinical workloads and lack of training. While student feedback is shown to be positive in literature, there is a lack of understanding about how residents view their teaching duties. This study aims to investigate the perceptions and experiences of surgical and orthopaedic residents regarding undergraduate medical teaching.</p><p><br></p><p><u>Method</u></p><p><br></p><p>A cross-sectional online survey was conducted among resident and resident specialist grade doctors in the surgical and orthopaedic department of a single university teaching hospital. Subjects were asked to fill in an online survey after obtaining informed consent. Doctors without medical student teaching experience were excluded from the study. Background characteristics (including sex, training grade, primary medical qualification, experience in medical student teaching and teaching hours) and their opinion towards various statements regarding medical student teaching (experience, perception and belief) on Likert scale of 1 to 5 were recorded. </p><p><br></p><p><u>Results</u></p><p><br></p><p>40 residents across all training grades were included in this study. All of them have been taught by residents during medical school and 65% rated their previous learning experience as good or very good. Many enjoyed medical student teaching (65%) and would like to become more involved in teaching (47.5%). Most agreed that they gained more knowledge and improved their own learning as they taught (75%). However, only 25% received formal training in teaching and 12.5% had protected time off from clinical duty for teaching. They also did not receive adequate feedback about quality of teaching (25%), nor sense of being valued by the hospital or university for their engagement in teaching (20%).</p><p><br></p><p><u>Conclusion</u></p><p><br></p><p>Surgical and orthopaedic residents reported positive feedback from their experience in undergraduate clinical teaching but received inadequate support and training.</p>