Surgical EducationWeekly e-mailed teaching tips and reading material influence teaching among general surgery residents

- A weekly e-mail series consisting of teaching tips and education manuscripts was e-mailed to general surgery residents.
- Surgical residents stated they taught more frequently and differently following the e-mail series.
- Surgical residents preferred teaching tips to reading education manuscripts.
- Weekly e-mailed teaching tips are an easy, nonintrusive method to encourage teaching among surgical residents.

BackgroundA nonintrusive e-mail reminder incorporating teaching tips and manuscripts was developed to supplement resident-as-teacher curricula.MethodsTen high-yield manuscripts and 10 teaching tips exemplifying the themes of mentorship or role modeling, teaching methods, adult learning theory, feedback, and the resident role of teaching were distributed to general surgery house staff through a weekly e-mail series. House staff completed surveys before and after the 20-week e-mail series.ResultsThirty (43%) and 28 (40%) respondents completed the pre-e-mail and post-e-mail survey, respectively. Residents found teaching tips to be more helpful than manuscripts. Weekly e-mail reminders were “just right” in frequency according to 74% of respondents. Forty percent of residents felt the weekly e-mails helped them teach more often and 50% of residents changed their teaching style.ConclusionsWeekly reminders are an easy way to encourage resident teaching without a significant resident time commitment. Residents typically find teaching tips to be more useful than manuscripts.