MEDICAL EDUCATION

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Notes for the Primary Care Teachers
TIPS FOR THE NEW MEDICAL TEACHER

AR Yong-Rafidah FAFPM, FRACGP, PGCert Med Ed
MN Hamdan DPhil
Both Dr Yong Rafidah Abdul Rahman and Dr Hamdan Mohd Noor are from the Faculty of Medicine, Cyberjaya University College of Medical Sciences, Malaysia
Address for correspondence: Associate Professor Dr Yong Rafidah Abdul Rahman, Faculty of Medicine, Cyberjaya University College of Medical Sciences, 63000 Cyberjaya, Selangor, Malaysia. E-mail: yongrafidah@cybermed.edu.my

Conflict of interest: None

Yong Rafidah AR, Hamdan MN. Tips for the new medical teacher. Malaysian Family Physician. 2007;2(3):117-9

INTRODUCTION

Many family doctors have become full-time or part-time medical teachers, either for undergraduate or postgraduate family medicine training. The first few months in teaching can be daunting. Common grouses include feeling ill-equipped in knowledge and good teaching skills. This article is our personal viewpoint and offers some tips for new family medicine teachers in coping with their new role.

TIP 1:  RE-EXAMINE WHY YOU WANT TO BE A TEACHER IN FAMILY MEDICINE.

You would have asked this question even before embarking on the new role! Reasons for family doctors going into teaching include the following¹:

1. An opportunity for a more varied and intellectually stimulating career
2. An increase in self-esteem by becoming a teacher
3. A need for a change of career at mid-life
4. Loneliness and isolation working in family clinics
5. The challenge of research

Re-examining this question will strengthen your interest to pursue, and motivation for self-development in, the new career pathway.

TIP 2:  KNOW YOUR DIRECTION AND FOCUS.

Pathways in being a medical teacher can be multiple: one can remain as a predominantly clinical doctor with some teaching and assessment roles; choose a more formal role in teaching as full-time lecturing in medical universities; or one can pursue research and leadership roles as a medical educationalist.²
 
In Malaysia, popular part-time teaching positions include being ‘clinical preceptors’ for undergraduate or postgraduate family clinic attachments, as well as being ‘mentors’ and ‘examiners’ of the Academy of Family Physicians of Malaysia. Part-time teaching gives the opportunity of contributing to the training of colleagues whilst being focused on clinical work and maintaining own clinical practices.

However, for family doctors who wish to develop further in medical education, being a full-time university lecturer might be a better option. This has its own attractions, but a common complaint is having to reduce clinical work and experience.

TIP 3:  KNOW THE VARIOUS ROLES OF A MEDICAL TEACHER.

Being a teacher does not mean that you are merely an information provider, but also a guide, a facilitator, a mentor, a role model, as well as a friend to your trainees.³ More experienced teachers, especially those in universities, would also need to manage academic programmes, plan courses, create resource material for teaching, assess students’ performance and evaluate teaching courses.  Apart from continuing with the delivery of clinical duties, conducting research and academic writing would be the other roles of university lecturers. Knowing these various roles will keep you aware of the various training that you might need to improve your teaching skills and professional development.

TIP 4:  EQUIP YOURSELF WITH BASIC KNOWLEDGE ON MEDICAL EDUCATION INCLUDING BASIC TEACHING PRINCIPLES AND TEACHING AND LEARNING METHODOLOGIES.

Apart from mastering the content or specific knowledge in the area that you teach, medical teachers should have some formal training in basic principles of medical education. Medical education courses usually offer knowledge acquisition in the following areas: Curriculum development, teaching-learning methodologies and assessment methods.

Books on the basics of medical education4 or training courses for new teachers are abundant. These include the one to be offered by the Academy of Family Physicians of Malaysia.

Knowing some basic and universal principles for teaching do help new teachers to be more confident and relevant in their teaching sessions^4,5. These principles include:

• Always be relevant to the needs of learners. Adult learners learn best (and thus better retain knowledge) when they find learning relevant to their immediate needs.
• Identify and communicate learning objectives to learners
• Have good planning on the conduct or structure of session or topic
• Ensure active learning – always try to engage learners by using interactive methods that enhance critical thinking and independent learning.
• Read and learn the content of teaching too! At least know where to direct students for further information.
• Check the teaching-learning environment – students learn better in a supportive and happy environment

Some of the principles above have been discussed in detail in previous articles in this series (“How adults learn”, “Tips on preparing a tutorial”, “Mentoring- a personal experience”).
 

Medical teaching has moved from merely didactic teaching styles and is best delivered in an interactive manner. Learning and mastering different methods would enhance the confidence of medical teachers. Do learn about the best way to conduct small group tutorials, clinical teaching in ambulatory care or office practices, teaching procedural skills as well as delivering interactive lectures.