Enhance Your Skills: Workshop on Teaching and Learning

he Workshop on Teaching and Learning is the crown jewel of the Society for Education in Anesthesia’s (SEA’s) educational programs. Anesthesiologists with an interest in, or responsibility for, the education of medical students and anesthesiology residents and fellows can profit from participation in the workshop, which is a four-day intensive meeting held each spring. This year’s meeting will be held April 29 through May 2 at the Sheraton City Centre Hotel in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Academic faculty and departments are under increasing pressure to provide effective education with measurable results. This is a major focus of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education Outcomes Project,¹ and all residency programs are evaluated during their program reviews to ensure compliance. The vast majority of anesthesiologists have no formal training about how to teach. Faculty tend to emulate their own educational experiences, with variable results. The workshop has been developed to address these needs.

A hallmark of the workshop is its focus on personalized instruction and active learning. Student-to-faculty ratio is carefully maintained at 4:1, and most of the workshop is participative. Indeed attendees are provided with preparatory reading material in advance of the workshop and are expected to contribute each day in a variety of workshops and educational exercises. Course topics include aspects of educational theory, understanding the adult learner, teaching and learning styles and pathology, lecturing skills, feedback and evaluation, motivating learners and curriculum development. Attendees receive specific feedback on their lecturing skills and hear from experienced educators about motivating faculty and getting academic credit for educational activity. Previous attendees have praised the workshop as having tangible benefits that were immediately put to use when they returned to their departments.

Those who profit most from the workshop are individuals with an interest in education and those who are self-motivated to improve their effectiveness as educators. Residency program and course directors will find that performance evaluation and education committee meetings are much clearer and more effective. Most attendees find that they are re-energized and refocused on their educational activities upon returning to their departments. Category 1 continuing medical education credits are awarded for the meeting.

The SEA Education Meetings Committee, chaired by Karen Steckner, M.D., is responsible for the Society’s other annual meetings, including a Friday meeting prior to the ASA Annual Meeting and a three-day meeting each spring co-sponsored by an academic anesthesiology department. This year our Spring Meeting will be held on June 2-4, 2006, in Nashville, Tennessee, at the Loews Vanderbilt Hotel and is cosponsored by the Department of Anesthesiology at Vanderbilt University. Check your calendars and make plans to attend the meeting. Jane Easdown, M.D., and her colleagues at Vanderbilt have planned an exciting program, and the call for abstracts for the meeting is now available on the SEA Web site <www.seahq.org>.

I encourage you to consider SEA’s educational offerings for yourself or others in your practice.


References:
1. Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education Web site <www.acgme.org/Outcome>. Accessed on January 9, 2006.

Catherine K. Lineberger, M.D., is Associate Professor of Anesthesiology and Residency Program Director, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina.