“This was something the residents wanted,” he said. “They felt that we could further improve their learning if we added resident-directed reading sessions to our current lectures and clinical vignettes.”
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November 2014Dr. Reh was part of a team at Johns Hopkins that in 2008 created a new program to help residents prepare for the Otolaryngology Training Examination (OTE). This involved setting up weekly, 60- to 90- minute interactive case reviews led by faculty members. In 2011, they revamped the program again by making the residents responsible for the curriculum. Each week, one or two residents are asked to create an outline of a textbook chapter and lead a discussion about it. They also develop, organize, and adjust the didactic curriculum.
During the three years following the first intervention, Dr. Reh and colleagues reported an increase of 0.69 in mean national and 0.78 in mean group stanine scoring (P=.01). After the second intervention, scores increased by 1.36 in mean national and 1.58 in mean group (P=.001).
Dr. Reh said he often sits in on the review sessions and gives feedback, but he mostly lets the residents lead the discussions.
“Other programs should look at developing more of a learner-centered approach for residents. If you review the current education literature, and not just in medicine, making learners responsible for their own education seems to be a more effective teaching method,” he said.