“How I Teach”: A Novel Guide to Teaching in Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine

There are many behind-the-scenes tasks that go into launching a new journal, including the scope of publication, building an editorial board, and determining the frequency of publication. One of the more enjoyable ones was establishing the types of articles we would solicit. Although we began with the standard categories, such as original research, perspectives, and reviews, we also wanted to create new formats for health professions educators to share their expertise with our readers. That is how we came up with the idea of “How I Teach” (1).

We envisioned a series of articles in which skilled educators from across the world would walk through their approach to the topics that so many of us teach to students, residents, fellows, and other interprofessional learners as we do our clinical work. We would learn about the content and at the same time about the “how to” of the teaching and the “why” this was an effective way to approach the topic. Although it sounded like a great idea in theory, the challenge of translating that concept into an actual article was more complicated than we expected.

We quickly learned that it was more straightforward to write a clinical review about relevant subject matter, such as diagnosis of obstructive lung disease or treatment options for obstructive sleep apnea, than to explain the step-by-step teaching of the content and the principles that guided the specific teaching strategies applied. For so many gifted teachers, there is a natural evolution to their style of teaching without a moment of reflection when they think through “why do I teach it this way?” And yet, we believe that is exactly what is valuable to our readers.

This issue of ATS Scholar includes the first two How I Teach articles. We thank the authors for their patience and willingness to iteratively revise their manuscripts. These two outstanding pieces reflect our initial vision when we proposed this new category of teaching review and serve as models for future manuscripts in this new submission category. The first focuses on how to teach about the concept of auto-positive end-expiratory pressure (auto-PEEP) (2) and the second on the use of ultrasound to place a peripheral intravenous catheter (3). These two papers demonstrate the spectrum of topics that are particularly appropriate, with one describing a simple way to teach a highly complex concept and the other sharing an expert approach to an everyday procedure in the hospital. Whether these are topics you have taught for years or something entirely new to your educational repertoire, we believe these articles are uniquely valuable. The publications include short videos to show how the authors demonstrate principles, figures that can be replicated as drawings on a whiteboard, sample questions to ask your learners, and a discussion of the challenges of teaching the topic using the approach described. We believe that each How I Teach manuscript should educate the reader about the specific topic and provide a roadmap to teaching it.

As we worked with authors in revisions of their initial How I Teach submissions, a suggested structure for future How I Teach submissions became clear to us. This format is available to authors in the ATS Scholar author instructions. It includes a discussion of the targeted learners and the educational setting as well as the approach to teaching the content. We also want to learn the “why” behind the strategy proposed as well as what challenges one might encounter when teaching the material. Finally, each article should include a concise review of the clinical topic being taught, so that an educator, who may not be an expert in the content, would learn enough to teach the topic using the approach described. The manuscript should not be as detailed as a clinical review but should reference the authors’ preferred reviews of the topic for readers who wish to pursue a deeper understanding.

We believe we have created a novel and useful new category and have the start of an outstanding toolkit for all healthcare professionals who teach in the clinical environment. The approach to teaching topics in pulmonary, critical care, and sleep medicine will differ when teaching students, residents, and fellows as well as nurses, respiratory therapists, pharmacists, and other healthcare professionals. We hope future articles discuss unique approaches to teaching content for these individual groups of learners. Although the first two pieces are focused on topics more commonly encountered in the hospital, we hope to add How I Teach pieces relevant to sleep medicine and core pulmonary topics taught in the ambulatory setting. We know our community is filled with outstanding teachers, and we welcome your submissions. If a potential author has an idea for a How I Teach manuscript but would like to discuss the concept with the Editors first, we are happy to talk through your ideas and strategize together on how to create the next How I Teach. We believe that this is the start of a great addition to the pulmonary, critical care, and sleep medicine literature. We hope you do too!