Doughnut Rounds: A self-directed learning approach to teaching critical care in surgery

In light of medical students and residents becoming more knowledgeable and vocal in their evaluation of traditional clinical teaching methods, a number of innovative approaches have been tried in our program. We examined a self-directed learning approach to teaching critical care in surgery, known locally as 'Doughnut Rounds', which involve four to seven medical students and or residents during their surgical intensive care unit (SICU) rotation. They choose the reading material as a group and are expected to formulate 12 questions based on the week's readings. They pose these questions to their colleagues in a 'game show' format. In this scenario, the attending surgeon has only to bring the doughnuts and to act as a moderator during the session. Several weeks following the end of their three-month ICU rotation, 25 students were sent a questionnaire. It was designed to reflect their degree of satisfaction with Doughnut Rounds and their perception of the importance of various components of these teaching sessions. An ordinal scale from 1 to 5 was used. Averages and standard deviations were calculated for each question and for the overall impression of each respondent. Every aspect asked about on the questionnaire was ranked positively. Doughnut Rounds has thus successfully stimulated students to read, think and actively participate in the learning process. It is hoped that the success of Doughnut Rounds will encourage others to experiment with this teaching method.