BIDMC Neurology Resident as Educator Curriculum
Neurologists are educators not only of their patients and their caregivers, but of students, colleagues, and collaborators. Learning to be an effective teacher is therefore an essential skill for physicians at all stages of their careers.
The BIDMC Neurology Residency Program has a well-established Resident as Teacher curriculum. Over the 3 years of residency training, residents receive didactics on teaching, feedback, assessment, and curriculum development. The resident role as educator is further developed each year through practical experience. In the PGY 2 year, junior residents provide near-peer teaching for students and peers. During the PGY 3 year, residents run teams on the consult services which include Harvard Medical School (HMS) students as well as medicine and psychiatry residents. This provides an opportunity to develop teaching skills in small groups and with bedside teaching. In the PGY 4 year, residents hone their skills as educators by running larger teams of neurology residents in the inpatient General Neurology and Stroke services. In these settings, chief residents learn how to effectively teach students and near-peers through bedside and small group teaching. Residents also develop their skills in providing high value feedback to their trainees.
Residents in their chief year are enrolled in the Teaching Chief rotation. During this rotation, chief residents learn how to teach simulation in Neurology, provide effective individualized feedback using different methods, and how to perform Clinical Evaluation Exercise’s with HMS students. In addition to the structured Resident as Teacher curriculum, the BIDMC Neurology Residency program also offers additional elective resident as teacher opportunities in
- Developing mentored projects in curriculum development and/or continuous quality improvement research in medical education. Teaching anatomy in the HMS preclinical Mind, Brain, and Behavior course.
- Teaching in Global Health settings through the Zambia program.
- Paid tutoring opportunities.
BIDMC and HMS both offer additional resources to develop residents and fellows as medical educators, and opportunities to collaborate with the medical educator community across the Harvard Institutions. Residents may elect to become members of the BIDMC Academy, which offers free resources for residents to develop skills as medical educators across diverse settings including:
- Curriculum Vitae Clinics
- 1-on-1 consultationsMonthly professional development session
- Monthly professional Development Sessions Peer observation of teaching
- Master Teacher observation
The HMS Academy offers additional resources to develop skills as medical educators through bi-monthly grand rounds on topics in Medical Education, numerous online resources for resident educators, and the Journal of the HMS Academy, which promotes discourse in medical education.
The BIDMC Neurology Resident and Educator curriculum has been highly effective over the years. Our residents have been awarded numerous teaching awards by their HMS students, and are recognized for their skills as educators.
If you have questions or would like to learn more about our program, please contact Alexandra Hovaguimian, MD, HMS Neurology Clerkship Director; ahovagui@bidmc.harvard.edu