Medical Student

MS3/MS4

Congratulations on your early interest in an educational pathway! At this point, your next steps are likely the same whether you plan to pursue clinical teaching or educational research/administration. As a medical student, there are a few steps you can complete to help prepare for a career in medical education:

• Identify the residencies that will best prepare you for a role in medical education and work towards strengthening your candidacy for those programs.
• Talk to emergency medicine (EM) residency leadership at your school. Chat with them about their career path and ask if you can assist on any educational projects.
• Become a tutor or teaching assistant.
• If possible, assist with or even spearhead your own medical education project. This can be as simple as a suturing lab or simulation, or as complex as a structured tutoring program for a specific course. Whatever you do, be sure to develop the project in a scholarly manner. Your ultimate goal is to present and/or publish these findings, which may include pre- and post-intervention data such as surveys or test scores.

Choosing a Residency

Because no definitive pathway into medical education exists, there is no exact science to choosing a residency to best prepare for a career in medical education. That said, there are some considerations one should keep in mind based on their future career path.

Academic vs Community Program

Many people believe that a residency at an academic program is necessary to secure a role in medical education going forward. However, this is not true. While academic centers have traditionally provided more opportunities for teaching due to the presence of an undergraduate medical education program, many academic centers are now sending their students to community sites, including during their pre-clinical doctoring courses. What matters most is obtaining educational experience. It may be easier to achieve this objective in an academic program, but with initiative and ingenuity it can certainly be done in the community.

Presence of an Educational Distinction Track/Focus

Lots of residency programs have begun offering their residents the option of focusing on a specific area including education. Programs with a distinction track or focus have developed a specific curriculum for students to complete that helps provide the skills necessary to become a medical educator. While certainly not necessary to obtain a role in medical education, structured systems with developed curricula and faculty focused on developing you as an educator are not a bad idea in helping develop one’s education skillset, particularly if you hope to pursue a career in research or administration. That said, if you choose to attend a program without a distinction track or focus, it is possible to create your own, without constraints imposed by established standards.