Despite an Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education requirement for a RAT curriculum, some pediatrics programs still lack one, and some consider their program only moderately effective. A wealth of curricular material exists across programs, which could be shared nationally. Establishing a national RAT curriculum would offer programs resources to meet educational mandates and the ability to tailor programs to best fit their own program needs.

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Context and setting Residents teach students informally, by asking and answering questions, giving mini-lectures, and providing clinically relevant, on-time teaching, whereas attending doctors often have scheduled and more structured time with students as assigned preceptors or teaching attendings. Why the idea was necessary Due to the time demands and economic pressures of contemporary medical practice, talented and dedicated teaching faculty staff are becoming more difficult to find. Residents are often called upon to teach in their stead and, although they are eager to teach, the literature argues that residents need training in teaching skills if they are to be most effective. What was done We created a 1-month elective at our institution that offers senior residents the opportunity to learn about educational theory and practise teaching while free of the constraints imposed by the role of ward team leader. This elective focuses on additional skills (e.g. adult learning theory and feedback) not addressed in depth in the required Resident Teaching Development Programme (RTDP) offered to residents in all core clinical departments at our hospital.We piloted this elective with a chief resident (MAW) in the internal medicine and paediatrics residency, who served as a clinical preceptor for Year 3 medical students during the paediatric clerkship, reviewing student case presentations, discussing relevant topics and teaching physical diagnosis at the bedside. During the pilot, the teaching resident met bi-weekly with a faculty mentor to discuss required readings and debrief on individual teaching sessions. Each teaching encounter was also supervised by an experienced teacher who provided immediate feedback to the resident.Unlike teaching on the wards, where time is a constant pressure, as a clinical preceptor the resident has more time to focus on teaching the communication and physical examination skills needed to be an effective clinician (as the presentation of 1 patient may last as long as 90 minutes). Evaluation of results and impact The teaching resident felt that the experience was a useful way to consolidate and practise the teaching skills addressed during the RTDP. It also allowed the resident to focus on the most crucial teaching points and interesting aspects of a case rather than on the minutiae involved in managing an acutely ill patient.Student evaluations of the experience were positive. Both students and mentor commented that the teaching resident was a strong teacher and role model. One student noted that the resident Ô ... showed [them] just how big a role a [Year 3 student] can have on a team ... [the teaching resident] was a model for the type of resident I want to beÕ. Another student described the teaching resident as a strong teacher who was Ôvery thorough and detailedÕ. His faculty mentor described the resident as an Ôoutstanding preceptorÕ to whom the students Ôeagerly respondedÕ.As this elective is offered to more residents this year, we plan to assess the improvement in residents' teachin...

Purpose Empathy is an important skill for physicians as it can lead to improved patient outcomes and satisfaction. This study assessed self-reported empathy by medical students across all four years of medical school and potential differences in empathy across students interested in different subspecialties. Method All medical students enrolled at New York Medical College in August 2020 were invited to participate in this study. Participants completed the student version of the Jefferson Scale of Empathy. Results A total of 179 medical students participated. Mean empathy score in fourth-year students was significantly lower than that in first-year students. Mean empathy score was greatest among students interested in Pediatrics and was greater in participants who identified as women. Conclusions Self-reported empathy may be lower in upper-year medical students when compared to lower-year students. The potential reasons for lower empathy in the later years of training are discussed. A systematic curriculum for teaching and maintaining empathy should be developed and uniformly implemented across medical schools to combat a potential decline in empathy.

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