Ten Mattuisms on ED Teaching

If you want to know how to teach students in the emergency department, and you need to know fast, you’re in luck.

Back in July 2009 EMRAP: Educator’s Edition featured Amal Mattu (@amalmattu) talking about his top tips, pearls and pitfalls on Teaching in the ED.

Here are the top 10 take home messages that I got from listening to the master:

1. Teach less so that others learn more
   — don’t try to teach more than 4 things in a session.
2. Teach the right thing at the right time
   — i.e. don’t show someone how to draw the coagulation cascade at 4 in the morning!
3. Listen with your eyes and your ears, and make sure others do too!
4. Teach others how to learn so they can become responsible for their own learning
5. Set time-limited learning objectives
6. Use the ‘What if?’ technique of learning
   — this helps to develop associations, keep things fun and guard against availability bias (only things that are easy to remember tend to spring to mind); e.g. “What if the patient with X is also on warfarin?”
7. Use the ‘Hear hoof beats? Think of lions, tigers and bears!’ technique
   — what are the deadliest differential diagnoses for a presentation? In my part of the world I like to think of ‘Crocs, Stingers and Taipans!‘.
8. Don’t be afraid of silence
   — let the student come up with an answer.
9. Be specific about what the student did well and provide constructive feedback. Suggest how the student can address their learning needs.
10. Ask the student, “what did you do well, and what can you improve on?”