Development of a peer review of operative teaching process and assessment tool.

Background: While teaching evaluation systems are common in academia, very little information is available regarding formal coaching and peer review of teaching performance in surgery. This article is a report on the development and implementation of a peer review of operative teaching program.

Methods: Our process was designed using a multistep sequential model which included developing a peer review of teaching instrument that was piloted to study the efficacy and utility of the tool.

Results: Thirty-nine peer reviews of teaching were conducted. Among the most frequent challenges that faculty identified were allowing residents to struggle/give autonomy, judging when to take over the case, communicating effectively, being patient, balancing education and patient safety, and giving feedback.

Conclusions: Our peer review of teaching program is systematic, feasible, and can be adopted by other surgery departments. Faculty's identified strengths and challenges have been incorporated into our faculty development curricula.