Residents as teachers in Neurology: a Germany-wide survey on the involvement of neurological residents in clinical teaching

Abstract

Background: Residents play an important role in the clinical training of medical students, spending up to 25% of their daily work teaching. In the US medical curriculum didactic courses for residents already exist and their role as a teacher is firmly anchored. In Germany, there are no fixed regulations or residents-as-teachers-programs. The aim of this study was to evaluate the activities of neurological residents in clinical teaching. Methods: We conducted a prospective cross-sectional online survey among neurological residents in Germany. The evaluation was carried out descriptively and by means of text analysis. Results: 138 residents from 39 German neurological university hospitals answered the survey. Nearly half of them needed the teaching activity as part of their career planning. The residents are mostly involved in practical courses. More than 80% stated, that they enjoy teaching. 64% stated that there were no preparatory courses for teaching at their hospital/university. 78.4% of the respondents received no or merely insufficient feedback for their own teaching and 62.5% had only little or even no knowledge about the university curriculum. Conclusions: By teaching medical students, residents play an outstanding role in recruiting students for neurology and, simultaneously, teaching leads an improvement in the residents’ own learning. To encourage young neurologists as teachers and—at the same time as learners—Clinic directors and universities should promote residents-as-teachers programs in neurology and reward the residents’ teaching activities.