Interprofessional Microteaching: An Innovation to Strengthen the Behavioral Health Competencies of the Primary Care Workforce

Background: There is significant variability in how residency programs prepare the primary care workforce in behavioral health competencies. One approach that warrants further exploration is to have integrated behavioral health consultants (BHCs) capitalize on in vivo clinical teaching opportunities in the context of team-based care. This article presents preliminary results from the implementation of a pilot program wherein BHCs use warm handoffs and other clinical interactions to provide brief, targeted education to medical residents. Method: Twelve BHCs from five resident training clinics participated in a 1-hr training on "microteaching" skills that could be used in clinical teaching interactions. BHCs were asked to track instances of microteaching using an Excel spreadsheet. After 3 months, BHCs and residents responded to electronic surveys that assessed the acceptability and feasibility of this process. Results: In 3 months, BHCs provided 269 instances of microteaching with 66 residents (66.7%) across five clinics. These microteachings occurred within the context of various interactions, including warm handoffs (n = 138, 51.3%), curbside consultations (n = 78, 29.0%), debriefs (n = 46, 17.1%), and team huddles (n = 7, 2.6%). Roughly half (n = 149, 55.4%) of these encounters involved Level 1 microteaching (i.e., lasting 2 min or less), while half (n = 120, 44.6%) involved Level 2 (i.e., lasting 3-10 min). BHCs and residents rated the microteaching interactions as acceptable and feasible. Discussion: Leveraging embedded BHCs as clinical educators in integrated care environments may hold value for increasing behavioral health competencies among medical residents. Public Significance Statement Integrating behavioral health consultants (BHCs) into resident training clinics may hold value for increasing behavioral health competencies among the primary care workforce. Well-trained BHCs can capitalize on in vivo clinical teaching opportunities in the context of team-based care to provide targeted education and feedback to medical residents, and both BHCs and residents find this process is feasible and acceptable.