Question
Now that I have completed the entire interview process and have been able to evaluate the programs I visited, I am making my final rank order of programs. Can you tell me more about the Teaching Scholars Program that you mentioned in your morning talk?
Answer
Many medical students tell me thay are a bit stressed out in February as they must submit final rank order lists to NRMP by February 25th. Once applicants are comfortable that the clinical training at a particular residency program is what they are looking for, they often then prioritize different factors (geography, family, fellowship availability, cost of living, etc) not directly connected to the education of residency. Often these are quite important in where medical students end up on Match Day. The old advice of rank em in the order you want to be there still holds true!
In terms of the Faculty Teaching Scholars thank you for asking. Many of our residents aspire to an academic career in large part because they enjoy teaching, and they can get involved in the project the faculty member is working on. The background for the Teaching Scholars Program is outlined in the article: Macario A, Edler A, Pearl R. Training attendings to be expert teachers: the Stanford Anesthesia Teaching Scholars program. J Clin Anesth. 2008;20(3):241-2
full article: Download file
Keep in mind that faculty members want to achieve the same high level of expertise (in education) as that expected of research faculty (in clinical or laboratory investigation). But often times teaching faculty have not had formal training in being a good teacher. Expanding and refining the teaching toolbox of faculty is needed as graduate medical education in anesthesia evolves. To help meet this challenge the Dept. of Anesthesia at Stanford supports the Teaching Scholars Program to further train and empower faculty to improve residency education.
This one-year faculty career development award provides recognition and funding and non-clinical time for the Teaching Scholar to attend the Dr. Kelley Skeff medical education seminars at Stanford (http://www.stanford.edu/group/SFDP/), as well as another off-site education related meeting. Previous Teaching Scholars have participated in the Society for Education in Anesthesia Meetings and the ACGME Annual Educational Conference. For 2007-2008 the Faculty Teaching Scholars (projects) were:
- Dr. Collins—“Construct a summative performance assessment tool for the difficult airway management rotation”
- Dr. Chen—“High-fidelity simulation to improve intra-op anesthesia teaching during pediatric rotation”
- Dr. Ramamoorthy—“Teaching the ACGME core competency curriculum in the OR”
- Dr. Adriano—“A feedback system for first year residents during their month long Orientation”
- Dr. Harrison—“An instructional program (including assessment) for ultrasound guided regional anesthesia”
- Dr. Oakes—“An instructional program (including assessment) for TEE”
One way we evaluate the Teaching Scholars program effectiveness is to look at the educational improvements (e.g., active learning techniques) that have been implemented by program graduates.
For 2009 the Teaching Scholars are: Download file