The role of trainees as clinical teachers of medical students in psychiatry

Objective: To consider the role of specialty trainees as clinical teachers of medical students in psychiatry. Method: We discuss the role of specialty trainees as teachers and approaches to improving their skills and capacity, giving examples from the local and international literature and our own experience as psychiatry medical educators. Results: Good clinical teaching is crucial for medical students' learning but sharp increases in numbers combined with economic and workforce pressures have stretched capacity. Specialty trainees do much of the medical student teaching during their clinical placements but infrequently receive instruction on how to teach. The two common approaches to increasing capacity are, first, establishing education rotations for individual trainees and, second, providing workshops to improve trainees' confidence and skill. Psychiatry trainees surveyed in New South Wales welcomed the role of teacher and the opportunity to improve their teaching capacity. Further support from supervisors, health services and medical schools is needed to assist trainees in their teaching role. Conclusion: The role that trainees play as clinical teachers should be acknowledged and supported. Further development of research and scholarship in medical education is needed to determine how best to teach trainees to teach.