Assessing the quality of clinical teaching: a preliminary study

Abstract

Despite attempts to identify discrete and observable target behaviours, placing observers on rounds to detect these behaviours may not be as straightforward as it would seem. Clinical teaching may be a more inherently subjective process, based on different teaching styles of faculty staff. However, a set of objective checklist items to be completed by trained observers on teaching rounds holds promise as a potentially viable means of identifying strengths and weaknesses of clinical instruction. Further research is needed to define what constitutes quality clinical teaching, as well as the most reliable method for assessing it.