Learning from Teaching for Physician Educators at UCSF (2026-2027)

UCSF physician faculty may earn AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™ for learning that occurs in preparation for teaching medical students, residents, and fellows.  The key is your learning. Credit recognizes new knowledge, skills, or approaches you develop in connection with teaching—not simply the time you spend with learners.

Who is eligible?

You may be eligible if you:

• are a physician with a faculty or volunteer clinical appointment at UCSF; and

• teach medical students, residents, or fellows in an eligible LCME- or ACGME-accredited program

For teaching residents or fellows, the residency or fellowship program itself must be ACGME-accredited.

What qualifies as Learning from Teaching?

Learning from Teaching begins when a teaching responsibility prompts you to learn something new or develop your skills as an educator or clinician.

Eligible teaching activities may include:

• giving a presentation or leading a teaching session;

• researching a clinical question or developing a case for teaching;

• supervising clinical or simulated activities;

• teaching clinical or other skills;

• assessing learner performance;

• mentoring quality or performance improvement projects; or

• mentoring scholarly activities.

The learning resources you use must be independent of ACCME-defined ineligible companies. *

What does that look like?

Example: Learning that qualifies

During morning report, a resident asks a question about the coagulation cascade. You research the topic afterward and spend 15 minutes teaching what you learned during rounds the following day.

Because new learning occurred in preparation for your teaching, the activity qualifies. Based on 15 minutes of teaching, you may claim 0.5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™.

Example: Teaching that does not qualify

Medical students accompany you during a clinic session, and you teach by example, but you do not undertake any new learning or preparation related to the experience.

Because the experience did not prompt new learning on your part, it does not qualify for Learning from Teaching credit.

How is credit calculated?

Credit is based on the time you spend teaching after your learning, not on the amount of time you spend preparing.

Physician faculty may receive credit at a 2:1 ratio:

1 hour of qualifying teaching = 2 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™

Credits are rounded to the nearest 15 minutes.

You may not claim credit more than once for the same teaching time, even when students or trainees from multiple programs participate.

What will I need to submit?

When you are ready to claim credit, complete the Learning from Teaching application at the link provided by the program director, or navigate to the COURSE CONTENT tab above.

Note you may only claim credit once each academic year and may aggregate teaching encounters up to ten hours (for a maximum of 20 credits).

You will be asked to briefly reflect on the learning associated with your teaching, including:

What did you need to learn?
Identify the knowledge gap, skill, or teaching strategy you wanted to address.

How did you learn it?
Describe the educational resources or methods you used and why you selected them. You will also be asked whether any resources came from an ineligible company.

What did you learn or improve?
Describe the new knowledge, competence, skills, or teaching strategies you developed.

What will you do differently?
Describe how your learning may change your clinical practice, teaching approach, or both.

>>Download a sample reporting form here.<<

How is my teaching verified?

You must provide the name of the appropriate program, clerkship, or course director for the teaching activity. UCSF will verify your participation before awarding credit.

Once your application has been reviewed and your teaching verified, eligible credit will be awarded at the 2:1 ratio described above.

In support of improving patient care, the University of California, San Francisco Office of CME is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), to provide continuing education for the healthcare team.

ACCME Credit:

Physicians: UCSF Office of CME designates this live Activity for a maximum of 2.00 AMA PRA Category 1™ Credit(s) per 1 hour of interaction with medical students and/or residents/fellows. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate to their participation in the activity.

Accessibility Statement
UCSF welcomes all participants to our events. If you need a reasonable accommodation to participate in this event because of a disability, please submit a learner support ticket as soon as possible.

UCSF Land Acknowledgment Statement
We would like to acknowledge the Ramaytush Ohlone people, who are the traditional custodians of this land. We pay our respects to the Ramaytush Ohlone elders, past, present, and future, who call this place, the land that UCSF sits upon, their home. We are proud to continue their tradition of coming together and growing as a community. We thank the Ramaytush Ohlone community for their stewardship and support, and we look forward to strengthening our ties as we continue our relationship of mutual respect and understanding.

For more information, visit https://opportunity.ucsf.edu/initiatives/ucsf-land-acknowledgment.

Mitigation of Relevant Financial Relationships

This UCSF continuing education activity was planned and developed to: uphold academic standards to ensure balance, independence, objectivity, and scientific rigor; adhere to requirements to protect health information under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA); and, include a mechanism to inform learners when unapproved or unlabeled uses of therapeutic products or agents are discussed or referenced.