Psychiatric News September 5, 2003
Volume 38 Number 17
© 2003 American Psychiatric Association
p. 13
Teaching the Next Generation
Angela Harper, M.D.
For the last seven years, I have lived on an academic calendar rather than a yearly calendar.
Something apparently happens on July 1 that automatically provides a greater fund of knowledge and competency to residents and medical students. I have always found it kind of amusing that this "switch" goes on every June 30, and that on July 1 I am somehow elevated to the next level of medical hierarchy.
This year has been especially scary, considering that I am in my last year of general psychiatry residency and fewer than 365 days from being an R.D.—Real Doctor, of course.
This most recent July 1 really seemed to hit home with me as a time of change, as I have taken a more active role in medical student teaching. I am currently the senior resident on the consultation-liaison psychiatry service. The team includes two third-year medical students, fresh from their M-2 year, ready to soak up clinical knowledge and happy to escape from the rigors of basic science courses.
As you would expect, these students are unfamiliar with the hospital, unsure of how to write a note, and scared of being reprimanded for any mistake that they might make out of inexperience. Yet they are also very eager to learn and ask lots of questions.
I find myself thinking back to my own third year of medical school and remembering how much I looked up to senior residents and the amount of teaching that they performed on a service. As each year of residency passes, I feel a greater sense of responsibility to make an effort to instill in students an appreciation for our specialty and to attempt to recruit those who have a natural talent for psychiatry.
Oftentimes, I think we as residents depend on faculty to provide this service. Perhaps we become frustrated with the extra time that it requires to explain a confusing concept when we are post-call and just want to finish our duties and get home to bed. Maybe the long hours and many demands of residency contribute to some of us becoming cynical and bitter. However, I firmly believe that it is vitally important that we embrace the opportunity to teach as an integral part of our residency training.
Outside of serving as a teacher on clinical rotations, other opportunities to teach and mentor students are easily accessible in most programs. At the University of South Carolina, for example, faculty seek out residents and encourage them to serve as small-group leaders to first-year medical students in their "Introduction to Clinical Medicine" course. Residents also serve as tutors to third-year students during their psychiatry clerkship and assist in the Objective Structured Clinical Exams (OSCEs).
For the last three years, I have had the good fortune to serve as the resident advisor to the Psychiatry Interest Group. This group plays a huge role in cultivating medical students’ interest in psychiatry and dispelling some of the myths that students may have about our field. It has been enormously rewarding to me as a resident to share my enthusiasm about psychiatry with those who are considering this specialty as a career.
As I finish my training, I am aware that the opportunity to teach may not be as available to me in the future, depending on what I choose to do with my career. For many of us, the future means dealing with managed care companies, playing telephone tag, studying for specialty boards, and worrying about paying the bills. Residency may be the last best chance for all of us to contribute to the strength and vitality of our profession as a teacher. I hope that we will all embrace this opportunity and consider it to be a privilege rather than a burden. 
Footnotes
Dr. Harper is APA’s member-in-training trustee.
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