Resident preferences for the clinical teaching of ambulatory care.

The content and teaching behaviors of clinical teaching in ambulatory care and, in particular, in family practice centers are important to residents as they attempt to learn the varied aspects of patient care. This paper is based on a study of family medicine residents' preferences for the content areas of family medicine emphasized by those attending physicians perceived by the residents as the "best" clinical teachers in their respective centers. Also included in the study were the specific teaching behaviors of those same clinical teachers. A statistical analysis of the preferences of residents provided an indication of the dimensions of clinical teaching in resident education. Further, certain individual characteristics of residents were found to influence their perceptions. It was concluded that selected content areas should receive more emphasis and that the human aspects of clinical teaching are more important than technical teaching skills. These perceptions were helpful in suggesting ways of improving the teaching of residents and faculty development.