Teaching Opportunities

Residency at Georgetown is not only an ongoing learning experience, but an ongoing teaching experience as well. There are many opportunities for the House Staff to participate in the education of medical students and fellow residents.

For exmple, 2nd and 3rd year residents will lead teams comprised of interns and medical stduents during their rotations on the wards. This is an opportunity to pass along clinical knowledge and tips for improving fundamental clinical skills (such as the performance of physical exams and the basics of patient management.) Although all wrads-teams are associated with teaching attending, the senior resident is considered the team leader and is given significant autonomy with regards to running the team and guiding student education.

Each year, the Georgetown medical students nominate those residents whom they consider to have been the best teachers for a "String of Pearls" nomination. Among the nominees, one resident is selected as the "Mother of Pearl" award winner.

Teaching Skills: Effective teaching is critical to the success of any academic medical center. To help ensure that our residents develop effective teaching skills, we have several training mechanisms in place designed to enhance these skills; the mechanisms vary from didactic seminars to the experiential. Before completing the transition to resident, each intern attends a teaching mini-retreat conducted by Dr. Adams and the Associate Program Directors. This seminar combines interactive role playing with didactic material to help prepare the upcoming resident for his/her new role as leader of the team. Faculty Members also conduct similar teaching seminars through the year for both residents and faculty.

Each month a senior resident with a reputation for teaching excellence is selected as Argy Teaching Resident. This resident meets daily with small groups of medical students rotating through the Medicine service to cover a formal didactic curriculum of clinical medicine topics and to demonstrate the application of these principles to patients in hospital at the time. The Argy Teaching Resident also meets weekly with the Clerkship and Residency Directors to discuss teaching issues and progress of the students.