JiTT/Resident as Teacher: The App

The Problem:
Teaching in the clinical environment mostly originates from trainees or clinicians who are not formally trained or naturally skilled in teaching. Teaching residents how to teach is increasingly recognized as a critical part of residents’ training. One of the main challenges for Resident as Teacher curricula is how to manage time to integrate pedagogical approaches in the clinical workplace. Clearly defined and geographically accessible structured trainee/faculty teaching resources are very limited. Access of evidence-based content at a point in time is limited with teaching time constraints. 

The Gap:
To improve resident teaching skills, more and more specialties have adapted Resident-as-Teacher (RAT) initiatives into their residency programs. With no unified approach, programs have incorporated a wide variety of curricula and teaching methodologies. However, due to increased clinical responsibilities and time constraints, it is a challenge for GME (Graduate Medical Education) programs to allocate enough time to enhance their skills.  Recently, information graphics, or infographics, have become an increasingly popular format for communication in both teaching and learning in the digital era . Yet, to our knowledge, there is little published data  on using infographics to train residents on how to teach. 

The Innovation/Initiative:
We will describe an innovation that applies to faculty and trainee development as a clinician educator. An electronic infographic teaching program utilizing technology-assisted modalities prepares trainees and faculty on how to teach and foster learning in busy clinical environments. The innovation will describe transition from an automated email software distribution platform to a phone App that re-sizes evidence-based infographics for distribution on mobile devices to trainee/clinician teachers to assure true ‘just in time” accessibly, not bound by any geographic, institutional or financial  barriers across the world. 

The Takeaway:
JiTTs are effective resource to deliver timely relevant information to trainee and faculty. Based on lessons learned in App development, delivery and feedback from end users, future iterations will be shared to enhance content delivered and accessed. Faculty developers must expand their creativity for delivery of content and develop systems using technology-assisted modalities that can be shared among diverse medical education environments.