Developing the Clinical Trainer: Teaching skills for early stage trainees

Overview

This course will provide foundation doctors and medical students with an overview of teaching, learning and feedback in the clinical environment. Participants will be given the opportunity to create a detailed plan for a short teaching session related to their clinical practice, and will receive written feedback on this for their portfolios. The programme is mapped to the foundation curriculum: after completion of the course you will have evidence that you have designed a teaching activity and received feedback to support your ongoing practice.

Format of the course:

To provide necessary flexibility to potential participants, the College has restructured the course content to enable remote delivery and participation. It will, however, retain interactive small-group elements that enhance the quality of the learning experience. The new format is:

Introductory online live session (0.5 hours) – This will introduce the content, aims and requirements of the course and provide clear instructions on accessing and working through its online learning resources. This will take place approximately two weeks before the live interactive session.

Online individual learning (2.5 hours) – Key elements of the course content will be delivered through online learning (on Moodle). This will include video content from tutors and will provide opportunities for participants to reflect on the applicability of clinical education theory to their practice. It is designed to provide the theoretical foundation for the final, interactive part of the course.

Online guided individual preparation (1.0 hour) – Participants will be required to record a very short video introducing themselves to the group and describing what they hope to gain from the course. All of these will be uploaded to Moodle and serve as ‘virtual’ introductions prior to the interactive session. Details of the requirements for preparation and presentation of individual teaching plans will be provided.

Live online session (2.0 hours) – In the final, online session there will be extended interactive discussion of central aspects of clinical education. Following this, individual participants will present their teaching plans and receive faculty and group feedback on them. To promote interaction, participant numbers will be limited to five in each session: there be will a choice of time slots for these sessions. 

Dates and times:

Tuesday 20 February, 13.30-14.00: Introductory online live session

Monday 4 and Tuesday 5 March: Live small-group interactive sessions. A choice of four time slots will be available: the College will endeavour to accommodate participants’ preferences but slots will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. The remaining time slots are: 

Monday 4 March, 10.00-12.00 or 14.00-16.00

Tuesday 5 March, 10.00-12.00 or 14.00-16.00

Please contact the course coordinator to book your place on one of these sessions.

Intended Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Demonstrate enhanced understanding of the clinical learning environment and its teaching and learning opportunities
• Utilise current thinking around learning and teaching principles
• Apply different approaches to teaching, with a particular focus on small-group teaching
• Plan teaching activities aligned wiht intended learning outcomes
• Demonstrate increased understanding of effective approaches to providing feedback in the clinical environment
• Apply basic feedback principles

Development outcome

To provide new clinical educators with an overview of teaching, learning and feedback in the clinical environment.

Who should attend?

• Medical students
• Foundation doctors
• The course may also be of interest to core trainees and early stage GP 

Dental enhanced CPD development outcomes:

A & B