POSTER

Assisting Hospitalists in Medical Student Education with a "Teaching Attending"

P.R. Ogershok, MD; S.A. Cottrill EdD; R.S. Moore, MD; N.D. Ferrari, MD
West Virginia University School of Medicine, Morgantown, WV

Objective: In general third year medical students receive excellent supervision as they rotate through the pediatric ward service. At times if a hospitalist is overwhelmed with clinical duties, the first thing to suffer can be student education. Our goal was to provide another attending to focus on teaching in order to give a consistent learning experience throughout the academic year.

Methods: A teaching attending was assigned to each group of ward students. Their responsibilities included spending at least 4 hours a week with each group for the 4 weeks of the inpatient rotation. During that time key concepts were suggested for review along with the clerkship learning objectives. The teaching attending were to review 3 history and physical exam write ups per student. They were encouraged to interact in this small group setting using games and problem-based learning techniques.

Results: The students were asked to evaluate all attendings using a standard 5-point Likert scale. Over the past 2 years the mean score in overall teaching effectiveness was 4.56 for the teaching attending and 4.44 for the hospitalists. Although there was no significant difference between the groups, the teaching attendings were well received.

Conclusion: Students in different groups at different times of the year can benefit from a more consistent learning environment with the use of a "Teaching Attending." Overall students gave these attendings high marks upon evaluation. This approach gives hospitalists more time to concentrate on patient care issues when needed, without sacrificing student education.