Dermatology Resident Generated Textbook Questions as a Resident-Centered Educational Strategy

Abstract

Background: Textbook conferences are widely used by dermatology residency programs in the United States to provide educational exposure to the specialty. Typically an entire textbook is reviewed each academic year. However, residents may be uncertain about mastery of the assigned readings. Since most dermatology textbooks do not provide questions about the material presented at the end of each chapter, an innovative senior resident from our program wrote questions about each chapter and offered them to the other residents prior to scheduled discussions of the assigned materials. Methods: A pilot study for resident generated quizzes about assigned textbook reading in general dermatology was developed, implemented, and assessed by anonymous completion of a Likert Scale by participants. Results: Participants indicated that quizzes better prepared them for the annual dermatology in-service examination and they thought that the additional creation of quiz materials in the subspecialty areas of dermatopathology and dermatologic surgery would be useful. Conclusion: Resident generated quizzes are a novel approach to the learning environment during dermatology residency for residency programs and may be useful for other residency programs that utilize textbook conferences. Additional research is needed.