Trainee experiences with resident-as-teacher training: results from four teaching hospitals of an urban academic health system

Purpose Teaching is a key responsibility for residents. Many programs have established resident-as-teacher (RaT) training; however, there is considerable variation in how RaT training is implemented. We investigated the prevalence of RaT training within a single large academic urban healthcare system. Methods We surveyed residents and program directors (PDs) from 23 residency programs across four teaching hospitals. Surveys included questions on demographic and background clinical information, teaching habits, educational offerings of the residency program, and barriers to teaching. Questions were scored on a 1- (lowest) to 5- (highest) point Likert scale. Multi-group chi-square or Fisher exact tests with Monte Carlo estimates and Bonferroni correction were used for analyses. Results We included responses from 245 residents across post-graduate years from eight different specialties and from 15 PDs. 42% of residents indicated that their program did not offer RaT training. 31.8% reported they had no structured medical education sessions in the prior academic year; this was significantly more common for general surgery residents. All PDs indicated that they offered ≥ 1 session. The most common sessions were workshops (27.2%) and traditional lectures (50.5%). Surgery residents reported the lowest satisfaction with the training offered by their program. With regard to barriers to teaching, residents identified lack of time as the highest rated obstacle. Conclusions RaT training was not commonly implemented; despite ACGME/LCME mandates, many residents reported receiving no formal structured teaching. Furthermore, we found important asymmetries between residents’ perceptions of training received and PDs’ perceptions of training offered.