© Springer International Publishing AG 2018 119
T.S. Köhler, B. Schwartz (eds.), Surgeons as Educators,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64728-9_7
Teaching Residents to Teach:
Why and How
James Feimster, Alexandria D. McDow,
and John D. Mellinger
Teaching Residents to Teach: Why and How
The teaching role of a resident is a fundamental aspect of modern surgical train-
ing and education. Not only are surgical residents themselves training for a career
that requires a strong knowledge base and refined technical skills, but they also
play critical roles in educating more junior residents and medical students at their
institutions. In this chapter, we will outline why teaching residents to teach is
both challenging and essential to contemporary surgical education, review current
memory and learning science theory, and detail how residents can apply clinical
teaching models to enhance the surgical knowledge and skills of their students and
colleagues.
Importance of Residents as Teachers
Contemporary surgery has become a complex team-based exercise that involves
multidisciplinary workgroups in which residents and medical students are together
embedded. In the social context of such activities, studies have shown that residents
have a greater summative influence on not only the knowledge but also the attitudes
and behavioral standards adopted by medical students, given their intimate involve-
ment in the students’ learning environment [ 1 , 2 ]. Medical students also rate the
J. Feimster, MD • A.D. McDow, MD
General Surgery, Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, Springfield, IL, USA
J.D. Mellinger, MD (*)
Department of Surgery, Southern Illinois University School of Medicine,
PO Box 19638, 701 N. First St., Springfield, IL, USA, 62794-9638
e-mail: [email protected]