C1 - 04: TEACHING ATTITUDES AND RESIDENT-AS-TEACHER PROGRAMS IN GENERAL SURGERY RESIDENCY PROGRAMS
Alaina D Geary, MD, Donald T Hess, MD, FACS, Luise IM Pernar, MD; Boston Medical Center

Introduction: Teaching medical students and junior residents is a key component of a surgical resident’s role. Therefore, teaching residents how to teach is a mandate. However, there is a paucity of literature regarding formal resident-as-teacher (RAT) programs used in general surgery training.  We sought to characterize the current resident educator climate and to learn more about currently established RAT programs employed in general surgery residency programs.

Methods: A 23-item survey to assess teaching attitudes and RAT programs was designed. A link to the web based survey (SurveyMonkey) was electronically distributed by the Association of Program Directors in Surgery (APDS) after review by the research committee. Program directors were asked to complete the survey. Response analysis was performed using Excel. Nonresponses were not included in the analysis.

Results: One hundred sixteen individuals (39%) completed the survey after three recruitment rounds; 67% of respondents were at academic medical centers. 98% of respondents indicated that they valued teaching by residents; 96% felt that teaching was an extremely important activity for residents; 93% felt that teaching was extremely important to residents’ career development. Only 57% of respondents’ answered that teaching expectations for residents were explicitly stated.

26% of respondents indicated a RAT program was in place at their institution. Of these programs, 93% were homegrown; 41% consisted of a single session. 61% of respondents who did not have a RAT program were interested in building or implementing one. Respondents who were not interested in establishing a RAT cited competing resident obligations and time constraints as limiting factors.

Conclusions: The majority of general surgery program directors surveyed believe that resident teaching is valuable and an important component of surgical residency. However, fewer than one third of respondents have an established RAT program at their institution. RAT programs tend to be homegrown, indicating a paucity of general surgery-specific RAT curricula. More than half of the programs without formal programs are interested in instituting one. There is a need for a curriculum that can be easily implemented and disseminated.