South Asian Medical Schools Must Include "Resident as a Teacher", One of the Core Competencies in the Curriculum of Postgraduate Trainees

The postgraduate trainee in the medical field is commonly referred to as a resident around the world. Residents are an indispensable part of the health care workforce in almost all teaching hospitals and medical schools across the globe. Residency is an in-service learning and training1. The resident of any specialty performs multiple roles during the specified training period, such as learner, healthcare provider, teacher, researcher and sometimes administrator too2-4. Residents are considered an integral part of both undergraduate and postgraduate medical education2. Globally, residents are engaged in teaching, formally or informally, to their junior colleagues and medical students4. In other words, a teacher is one of the critical roles a resident plays during their residency training period3. Residents typically spend approximately one-fourth of their training time teaching junior residents and students3,5,7. Statutory bodies governing the medical education in some of the countries have developed norms or guiding principle for the training "Resident as teacher or educator", but the curriculum for such types of training vary across schools, departments and specialties.