Teaching Residents at Night: Exploration of a Novel Curriculum

Abstract

Background: Implementation of a successful night curriculum has been a historical barrier to education during night rotations. Residents are tasked with teaching students and peers at night, often with little educational material to support this. To address the need for engaging night curriculum for pediatric residents, we aimed to (1) develop and implement a night curriculum with an emphasis on residents as teachers (RaTs) and (2) explore residents' experience with the RaT curriculum through a secondary qualitative analysis of reflections.

Methods: After a needs assessment, we developed and implemented a night curriculum consisting of both facilitated and independent learning activities. Each resident was expected to complete 3 out of the offered 5 to 7 learning activities during their month-long night rotation. One independent activity featured RaT topics, including clinical teaching, mentoring, or hidden curriculum. Participation was tracked via reflection submissions, which were inductively coded using Dedoose.

Results: A total of 90% (180/199) of resident rotations completed new curriculum requirements, with 45% (90/199) completing more than the required 3 activities. A total of 76% (151/199) chose to participate in the RaT activity as part of their night educational requirements. A total of 52 reflection responses were collected, 38 individual and 14 team responses. Responses highlighted themes including growing as educators, fostering interprofessional relationships, and developing careers.

Conclusions: High participation in the novel curriculum reveals the potential of virtual RaT activities to improve night education for residents. Participant reflections suggest high engagement in RaT and emphasize the andragogical value of key topics.