A randomized trial of an intervention to improve resident-fellow teaching interactions on the wards

BACKGROUND: Subspecialty fellows can serve as a tremendous educational resource to residents; however, there are multiple barriers to an effective resident-fellow teaching interaction in the setting of inpatient consultation. We designed and evaluated a resident-directed intervention to enhance communication and teaching during consultation on the general medicine wards. METHODS: Five medical teams were randomized to receive the intervention over a 3 month period (3 control, 2 intervention teams). The intervention was evaluated with pre and post-intervention surveys. RESULTS: Fifty-nine of 112 interns completed the pre-intervention survey, and 58 completed the post-intervention survey (53 % response rate). At baseline, 83 % of the interns noted that they had in-person interactions with fellows less than 50 % of the time. 81 % responded that they received teaching from fellows in less than 50 % of consultations. Following the intervention, the percentage of interns who had an in-person interaction with fellows greater than 50 % of the time increased in the intervention group (9 % control versus 30 % intervention, p = 0.05). Additionally, interns in the intervention group reported receiving teaching in more than 50 % of their interactions more frequently (19 % control versus 42 % intervention, p = 0.05). There were no differences in other measures of teaching and communication. CONCLUSIONS: We demonstrate that a time-efficient intervention increased perceptions of in-person communication and the number of teaching interactions between interns and fellows. Further studies are warranted to determine whether such an approach can impact resident learning and improve patient care. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12909-016-0796-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.