Improving lecture skills: A Time-Efficient 10-Step Pedagogical Consultation Method for Medical Teachers in Healthcare Professions

Background: Staff development initiatives proposed over the past few decades have, for the most part, suggested training environments such as workshops, short courses and seminar series. However, for many healthcare professionals, lecturing constitutes an ancillary activity, and a full-time occupation in the healthcare industry makes participation in such time-consuming programmes difficult to envision.

Aim: To develop and offer for critical review a time-efficient pedagogical consultation method to improve lecture skills for medical teachers of healthcare professions.

Methods: Medical education literature was reviewed for factors known to facilitate successful pedagogical consultations. The result of this research was used to define the procedure of a consultation methodology. In subsequent trial runs, the consultation procedure was tested with eight healthcare professionals hired for lecturing in bachelor courses of healthcare professions.

Results: The key elements of successful pedagogical consultations were isolated in the literature, and a 10-step consultation method was developed based on specific methodological components. Eight trial runs indicated feasibility, time-efficiency and effectiveness of the method.

Conclusion: The pedagogical consultation method presented here can help teachers to improve their lecture skills. It is a feasible model which can be easily adopted by medical educators to support staff development activities.