Best Practices for Teaching in Medical Education: Breaking Bad News

Guest Author: Megha Shah Fitzpatrick, MD, pediatric intensivist, MGUH Breaking bad news is a core competency in clinical communication and a skill physicians must repeatedly employ throughout their careers. This task carries a significant emotional burden, with clinicians often feeling anxious, fearing negative judgment, worrying about saying the wrong thing, and feeling a strong sense […]

Best Practices for Teaching in Medical Education: Bedside Teaching

Authors: Sarah T. Deutsch, MD; Elizabeth Chawla, MD Teaching in the clinical environment, also referred to as “bedside teaching”, centers around education in clinical settings focused on patients and their problems. Becoming an excellent clinical teacher requires professional development, feedback and reflection, and an understanding of learning theories and teaching models. Clinician educators face numerous […]

Best Practices for Teaching in Medical Education: Just-in-Time Simulation

Authors: Elizabeth Chawla, MD, and Sarah T. Deutsch, MD In a previous Medical Educator Minute, we discussed the benefits of using simulation in medical education to allow trainees to practice important clinical and procedural skills in a low-stakes environment. One innovative use of simulation referred to as “just-in-time simulation” combines in situ simulation with just-in-time […]

Best Practices for Teaching in Medical Education: Using Standardized Patients

Authors: Elizabeth Chawla, MD, and Sarah T. Deutsch, MD In a previous Medical Educator Minutes, we discussed the benefits of using simulation in medical education to allow trainees to practice essential clinical and procedural skills in a low-stakes environment. The use of actors as standardized patients (SPs) has been a core element of simulation in […]

Best Practices for Teaching in Medical Education: POCUS

Guest authors: Matt Coster, MD, Hospitalist, MGUH, and Jay Park, MD, Hospitalist, MGUH Point-of-Care Ultrasound (POCUS) refers to an ultrasound examination performed and interpreted at a patient’s bedside. POCUS is used to answer a clinical question generated after obtaining a patient’s history and physical examination, and has been demonstrated to improve diagnostic accuracy and shorten […]

Best Practices for Teaching in Medical Education: The One-Minute Preceptor

Guest author: Lydia Bunker, MD, hospitalist at MGUH The One-Minute Preceptor method provides a structured approach for clinical preceptors to integrate teaching into real-time interactions with medical learners following a patient encounter. Initially named “Five-Step ‘Microskills’ Model of Clinical Teaching,” this framework was developed in 1992 by Jon Neher et al. and consists of five […]

Medical Educator Minute: What’s the Difference between Milestones and EPAs?

Last month, we discussed methods of assessment in medical education. Milestones and EPAs are both methods of assessing trainees in a system of competency-based medical education (CBME). If you recall, competency-based medical education starts with the final outcome in mind (i.e., providing excellent patient care as a competent physician) and includes levels to capture progression […]

Medical Educator Minute: Assessment in Medical Education

Historically, assessment in medical education consisted of written and oral exams of medical knowledge. However, contemporary medical education recognizes the complexity of assessment and offers multiple assessment methods to better capture the multidimensional nature of education. Some examples of modern assessment methods include the OSCE (Objective Structured Clinical Exam), the mini-CEX (Mini-Clinical Evaluation Exercise), and […]

Medical Educator Minute: What is Competency Based Medical Education (CBME)?

You may have heard the term Competency Based Medical Education (CBME) before, but what does it mean? CBME is an outcomes-based approach to medical education and assessment that starts with the end in mind: patient care. The goal of CBME is to ensure that trainees achieve patient-centered outcomes during their training. Starting with the desired […]

Medical Educator Minute | Using a framework to design curriculum

As a faculty member or senior resident/fellow, you may be responsible for teaching a new topic to trainees or colleagues. Those new to medical education often begin by developing a lecture or learning exercise on the topic. However, research in medical education demonstrates that there is much more to teaching and learning than content. Using […]