Preparing surgery house officers for their teaching role.

The medical education literature was reviewed in four categories: (1) general studies of house officer teaching, (2) perceptions of the house officer's teaching role, (3) assessing and improving resident teaching skills, and (4) the teaching role of surgery residents. An agenda for research and development related to surgery resident teaching skills was proposed based on four research questions: (1) What types of teaching skills are most appropriate for surgery residents? (2) How do faculty and student expectations of resident teaching influence surgery resident teaching? (3) What type of intervention is most successful in improving surgery resident teaching skills? (4) What are other outcomes of improved surgery resident teaching besides resident and learner satisfaction? This important teaching role should be more formally and widely acknowledged by surgery faculty, and appropriate teaching skill improvement activities should be provided for all surgery house officers.