The pedagogic characteristics of a clinical conference for senior residents and faculty
N. D. Rosenblum, J. Nagler, F. H. Lovejoy Jr and J. P. Hafler
Division of Nephrology, Hospital for Sick Children, University of Toronto, Ontario.
OBJECTIVE: To determine the pedagogic characteristics of a clinical
conference for senior pediatric residents and selected faculty.
PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: Nineteen senior pediatric residents and 14
selected faculty members participated in a daily clinical conference at
Children's Hospital, Boston, Mass. DESIGN: Qualitative research design
using videotapes of nine consecutive hour-long sessions to generate
pedagogic topics to be investigated using a questionnaire administered to
participating residents and faculty. Narrative responses were analyzed to
find pedagogic themes. RESULTS: Analysis of videotapes generated the
following three topics: What facilitated learning? What was learned? What
makes the process of teaching and learning effective? In the questionnaire
residents indicated that learning was facilitated by resident-faculty
interactions (19/19), faculty participation (19/19), and information
resources (12/19). Content learned included information (16/19), approach
to diagnosis (11/19), management strategies (14/19), and different
perspective (14/19). An effective process of teaching and learning was
attributed to case-based resident initiated discussion (19/19),
facilitation by the chief resident (16/19), and non-competitive discussions
in which expert faculty played a nondominant role (19/19). Faculty
identified identical factors relating to all three themes. The mean rating
of the conference was 4.5/5 (SD, +/- 0.50) and 4.7/5 (SD, +/- 0.45) by
residents and faculty, respectively (Likert scale, 1 to 5). CONCLUSIONS:
The pedagogic effectiveness of this conference was attributed to a
resident-centered, case-based learning format and a discussion process
characterized by noncompetitive interactions among faculty and residents,
strong group facilitation by the chief resident, and participation of
faculty experts in a nondominant role.
