Clinician as Educator: Your Power Toolkit for Teaching Medical Students
Eric Barna MD
Director of Education DHM
Associate Residency program Director
Acting Internship Clerkship Director
Eve Merrill MD
Clerkship Director, Inpatient Medicine
Rex Hermansen MD
Associate Clerkship Director, Inpatient Medicine
KNOW: The importance of leveraging teaching skills to enhance the UME learner experience
DO: Incorporate the “essential 6 “ teaching tools along with high quality feedback and evaluation into your daily workflow
FEEL: empowered and invigorated to be great teachers and role models for your students.
Step 1: Understanding the Learner’s Orbit: Clerkship Context and Clinical Year
The Ascend Curriculum
Core Clerkship (MS3)
Third Year Clerkship Objectives
Clinical Skills
Demonstrate proficiency in history taking and physical examination. Communicate findings effectively through presentations.
Clinical Reasoning
Generate problem lists and differential diagnoses. Formulate accurate assessments and management plans.
Professional Behavior
Interact respectfully with patients, families, and healthcare team. Show initiative and reliability in patient care.
Students must achieve reporter-level competency on the
RIME schema (Reporter-Interpreter-Manager-Educator) by rotation end.
Third Year Required Experiences:
Third Year Clerkship Structure
Abdominal Pain (Adult)
Acid-Base Disorder
Altered Mental State
Anemia
❑ 5 weeks total=3 + 2 model
Chest Pain
❑ Every student rotates through MSH (the first 3 weeks or the last 2 weeks)
Chest Xray Interpretation
Congestive Heart Failure
❑ Rotate through 1 additional site (MS-West, MS-Morningside, or Elmhurst)
Electrocardiogram (EKG) Interpretation
Diabetes Mellitus
Dyspnea/Shortness of Breath
❑ 1 morning of didactics the 2nd Friday of the clerkship—in person, no clinical responsibilities
Fever (Adult)
Fluid or Electrolyte Disorder (Medical)
❑ Required preceptor sessions 1x a week in the afternoon during their 3-week block
Gastrointestinal Bleeding
Liver Disease/ Injury
❑ Require to take 1 long-call a week with their senior resident (stay until 7pm with the goal of doing an original H&P)
Pneumonia
Renal Disease
Thromboembolic Disease
Acting Internship
Acting Internship: Goals
❑ Derive and report clinical data from history and physical
❑ Prioritize problems by acuity/severity
❑ Start to formulate more focused differentials
❑ Demonstrate independent thinking
❑ Participate in transitions of care
❑ Communicate with clarity
❑ Contribute to the education of the medical team Students must achieve Interpreter-level competency on the RIME schema (ReporterInterpreter-ManagerEducator) by rotation end.
❑ Display initiative and reliability in task completion
❑ Describe indications/complications for procedures
Can care for SDU patients with an intern
4 Weeks
1 Weekend
Core Strategies for Effective Teaching
Set The Stage
Create a safe and welcoming environment
Email welcome
Set Expectations on day one
Identify interests
Use icebreakers
Post round huddle to “check in”
At the Bedside
Work Rounds
Teachable
Role
Modeling
We are Always Teaching
Goals of Care
The Essential Teaching Toolkit
What do you do to prepare before you meet your team/trainees for rounds?
1. Prepare
❑ Chart check the night before
❑ “Stealth Round” on new admits
❑ Identify target teaching
❑ Create your lesson plan including- organization, timing, execution, look-ups
❑ Map out Media use
“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail”
- Ben Franklin
2. Ask Like you Mean it
“Asking the right questions takes as much skill as giving the right answers.”
Recall – What are the 5 criteria for TTP?
Analysis/Synthesis – What led you to that diagnosis?
Application – How will you treat this patient’s pain?
Self Assessment– What would you do differently?
Waiting for an Answer
3. Role Model
An exam skill Communication
Self Directed Learning
Saying
“I don’t know”
Imitation is not just the sincerest form of flattery— it’s the first step in learning.”
4. Reason Out loud
❑ Models expert thinking
❑ Demystifies clinical reasoning
❑ Normalizes ambiguity
❑ Reinforces core knowledge
❑ Creates a safe learning space
❑ Promotes habit formation
5. Silent Presence: The Power of Stepping Back
Creates cognitive space
Unique lens for observation
Richer targeted feedback
Shows Trust and Respect
6. Bring your “E” Game
“Nothing GREAT was ever achieved without enthusiasm” -Emerson
Click, Teach, Inspire: Enhancing Teaching with Technology
My Personal Use of LLM’s in Education
❑ Quick Lesson Plan Generation
❑ Clinical Guidelines and Evidence Summaries
❑ Quick Educational Cards for rounds
❑ Landmark Trial Summary for dissemination
❑ Clinical case simulation
❑ Interview Prep (supplement to the mock interview)
Featured Technical Tools: Chat GPT4o
Practical Uses: Create curated podcast links for targeted clinical scenarios that can easily be shared with UME/GME trainees. Consider prompt engineering if you are looking for a specific Podcast.
The Educational Quick Card
Digital Layering
Beyond the Basics: Unconventional Uses of Everyday Apps in Medical Education
Example:
55-Year-old male with ETOH-Cirrhosis presenting with hypotension, acute blood loss anemia in the setting of an acute variceal bleed.
Beyond the Basics: Unconventional Uses of Everyday Apps in Medical Education
Example: Mr. Johnson is a 70 year old male with a known history of advanced COPD who presented with acute hypoxic respiratory failure was admitted to the MICU, course was complicated by an acute stroke requiring a tracheostomy and a PEG tube placement and he remains ventilator dependent. He is transferred to gen med teaching for continued care.
Fun
Technology driven
Board review focused
Knowledge development Allows for corrective guidance
Feedback in Medical Education
❑ Supports clinical skill development
❑ Enhances self-reflection and professionalism
❑ Fosters a growth mindset
❑ Improves patient care
❑ Drives engagement and motivation
"If you're not getting feedback, you're not growing. And if you're not growing, you're not leading."
— Patrick Lencioni
Feedback Best Practices
Build the Foundation First
1
2
Create a positive learning climate for an impactful educational alliance.
Observe Directly, Feedback Specifically
Base feedback on firsthand observationsof concrete behaviors, not assumptions.
3 Promote Self-Reflection Encourage learners to assess their own performance
4 Be Timely and Formative
Provide immediate, specific feedback throughout rotations, not just at the end.
Evaluations
❑Timely submissions (Navjeet Kaur –Nikki)
❑Honest detailed and specific comments
❑Avoid “read more”
❑Evaluations feed into broader narratives that are high stakes
Clerkship Grading (P/H)
MS3: To achieve a grade of Honors for the clerkship, students must demonstrate honors-level performance in 5 out of 8 of the tiered objectives
AI- To achieve a grade of Honors for the clerkship, students must demonstrate honors-level performance in 4 out of 7 of the tiered objectives.
“One of the essential roles of a physician is to pass on knowledge to those who will follow.”
