TOTB-09: ASSESSING THE BENEFITS OF PEER TEACHING FOR THE ABSITE THROUGH A RESIDENT-LED REVIEW COURSE
Douglas James Cassidy, MD; Massachusetts General Hospital
What problem in education is addressed by this work?:
The American Board of Surgery In-Training Examination (ABSITE) is being increasingly used in high-stakes decisions such as resident promotion and as a key criterion in fellowship; therefore, programs to improve ABSITE scores are a high priority for program directors and educators in surgical residencies across the country. Peer teaching provides economic savings through the use of peer educators as opposed to faculty, as well as benefits to learners, by offering education at learnerâs cognitive level in a comfortable and safe educational environment while empowering tutors to be responsible for the education of others. This supplemental course provides additional ABSITE review and fosters an environment of collaborative learning within a general surgery residency.
Describe the intervention:
An internal review and needs assessment was performed by analyzing institution data to identify knowledge deficit trends and topics of poor performance on the ABSITE within our program. Based on this needs assessment, a 20-week peer-taught ABSITE review curriculum was developed and research residents were asked to volunteer their time to prepare and lead 1-hour instructional sessions during weeknights outside of clinical duty hours. Residents who participated provided feedback on both the structure and content of the sessions and the teacher's performance, so that the curriculum and teaching methods could be improved over time.
Describe how this intervention could be applied at other institutions. Please specifically comment on identified barriers that could exist and how they could be overcome:
Each program can analyze their internal data and poll their residents to determine areas of deficiency so that the supplemental course can be modified to fit each institution's need. Since this review takes place outside of clinical hours, resident participation is voluntary, and additional incentives such as dinner or increased educational allocations to participating residents may be needed to encourage attendance. Finally, given the time constraints of active clinical residents, programs with dedicated research residents can utilize these residents to both champion the course and act as volunteer teachers, thus encouraging continued involvement and participation within the residency during the non-clinical years.