Surgical residents as teachers.

Surgical program directors have assumed that residents take on the role of teachers of medical students, and they have seldom questioned this assumption. The purpose of this study was to: determine the extent to which surgical residents teach and evaluate medical students; assess how surgical residents are prepared for and evaluated on their teaching responsibilities; and to identify surgical program directors' opinions about residents as teachers. Written surveys were sent to program directors of surgical residencies. A response rate of 79 percent was achieved. All programs taught medical students and involved residents in the process. Surgical residents taught medical students in a variety of settings and were responsible for student evaluation Approximately half of the programs, however, did not offer formal instruction in teaching skills to their residents and 60 percent of program directors did not believe it was important. In addition residents rarely received evaluations from medical students or program directors on their teaching.