Teaching
Becoming a better teacher is a central value that we all hold as educators in Family Medicine. Our continued development as teachers is necessary, regardless of whether we have taught extensively prior to joining the field of Family Medicine, or are new to both the field and the faculty role. Whether a novice or a veteran teacher, we can benefit from gaining skills in adult learning relevant to the preparation of future physicians and other health care professionals.
While some of this section’s resources will necessarily focus on the teaching of family systems and behavioral health, others will highlight the general skills needed by educators regardless of content. A life-long commitment to our own development as teachers is not only ethically necessary, it is essential to our long-term career satisfaction in this challenging and rewarding work.
Books
Dent, J. & Harden, R. (2009). A practical guide for medical teachers, 3rd Ed. London, Livingstone.
This book helps clinicians as well as other healthcare teachers in their understanding of contemporary educational principles, providing practical help in the delivery of the variety of teaching situations.
Edward, J., Friedland, J., Bing-You, R. (2002). Residents' teaching skills. New York, Springer Publishing.
This book provides practical guidance to plan, organize, and run a teaching skills program for medical residents. Offers materials for course use, modules for pediatric residents, teaching clinical procedures, works rounds, role play, and evaluation forms.
Groopman, J. (2008). How doctors think. New York, Houghton Mifflin.
A powerful book in which a physician discusses the thought patterns and actions that lead to misdiagnosis on the part of healthcare providers, and suggests methods that patients can use to help doctors assess conditions more accurately. A must read!
Newble, D. (2001). A handbook for medical teachers. New York, Springer Publishing.
This book offers a successful combination of sound educational principles, a how-to-do-it approach and an entertaining easy-to-read style, and contains numerous illustrations, examples, and pertinent cartoons.
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Palmer, P. (2007). The courage to teach: exploring the inner landscape of a teacher's life. San Francisco, Jossey-Bass.
This book builds on a simple premise: good teaching cannot be reduced to technique but is rooted in the identity and integrity of the teacher.Good teaching takes myriad forms but good teachers share one trait: they are authentically present in the classroom, in community with their students and their subject. A must read for those who teach.
Reynolds, Garr. Presentation zen: simple ideas on presentation design and delivery. Berkeley, CA, New Riders.
This book challenges the conventional wisdom of making "slide presentations" combining solid principles of design with the tenets of Zen simplicity. Valuable for adult learners, this book provides guidance for simpler, more effective presentations encourages one to think differently and more creatively about the preparation, design, and delivery of presentations.
Weinholtz, D. & Edwards, J. (1992). Teaching during rounds: A handbook for attending physicians and residents. Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press.
This book is a practical handbook designed to help attending physicians and residents improve their teaching skills, specifically in the context of medical rounds. The authors focus on the types of rounds usually encountered on inpatient services in departments of internal medicine or pediatrics, but the general principles they elaborate may be applied elsewhere.
Articles
Neher, J. O., Gordon, K. C., Meyer, B., & Stevens, N. (1992). A five-step "microskills" model of clinical teaching. Journal of the American Board of Family Practice, 5, 419-424.
This article presents the concept of the "one-minute" preceptor and five microskills used for teaching medical students efficiently and effectively after they have seen a patient and are presenting the case to you.
Web Resources
Society of Teachers of Family Medicine. (2016) Tips for New Faculty.
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The Society of Family Medicine provides an excellent set of resources for new faculty, and specific topics are addressed such as but not limited to Promotion and Tenure, Transition From Resident to Faculty, Negotiation, etc.
Evaluation Resources
2014 Strategies and Tools to Teach Patient-Centered Communication
The materials in this resource come from the 2014 presentation by Larry Mauksch, MEd, with the same name. Included are two observation forms, three videos, and the slide set. The videos do not include actual patient encounters. If you wish to present these slides, consider reading: Mauksch LB, Dugdale DC, Dodson S, Epstein R. Relationship, Communication, and Efficiency in the Medical Encounter: Creating a Clinical Model From a Literature Review. Arch Intern Med 2008;168:1387-95.
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