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Building the bondbetween teachers andlearners
Visiting a large provincialtown recently, I met upwith a colleague who is
running the university’s medicaleducation programmes in theregion; I consider myself to be amentor for him. As we dined thatevening in the town’s favouriterestaurant, I noted that he keptgiving cheery waves to people atneighbouring tables. Each tableaccommodated about eight mid-dle-aged people, with a youngerperson sitting at the head. As thenight wore on, people driftedbetween tables to speak with theyounger person.
Eventually I had to ask mycolleague what was going on. ‘Oh’,he said. ‘It’s changeover week, andthe registrars are heading back tothe city. That table is the surgicalone, the anaesthetists are overthere. The paediatricians areagainst that wall and the obstetri-
cians are near the door. They’re allsaying goodbye to their registrars.I was here with the medical unitslast night. It happens every term’.
I watched for a while andreflected on the relationshipbetween these doctors-in-trainingand their clinical teachers. Therewas almost a ceremonial aspect tothe evening, with each registrarbeing celebrated by the elders oftheir new ‘tribe’. But there wasalso a genuine warmth andaffection between these learnersand their mentors. There wasgratitude on both sides: from theregistrars for the invaluableexperience that they had gainedin a rural setting, and from theconsultants for having hadsomeone to ease the burden ofon-call and weekend rosters.
Beyond that, there was theindefinable bond of people who
have learned from each other,who have been challenged tothink, to reflect, and to unpacktheir clinical reasoning.
The relationship between theclinical teacher and his or herstudent is indeed complex, espe-cially when the learner drawsnearer to the teacher’s level ofcompetence. The clinical teacher isat once master to the apprentice,teacher to the student, supervisorto the trainee and mentor to thecolleague. Although we try todefine many of these relationshipsin terms of the taught curriculum,much of their power exists at theinterpersonal level.
In 2004, a small researchproject I undertook with anothercolleague (Dr Patricia Watson)cast some light for me on whatmakes an effective relationshipbetween the clinical teacher and
Editorial
� Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2011. THE CLINICAL TEACHER 2011; 8: 1–2 1
the learner. The project studiedthe views of 27 GP supervisors and34 registrars, and found that theroles of the supervisor most val-ued by their registrar can berepresented as follows.
Registrars valued supervisorswho were able to span all fourroles of teacher, educator, coachand mentor, making practical useof the main skills that supporteach role. Interestingly, thesupervisors tended not to recog-nise these skills as clearly as theirregistrars did, suggesting that thesupervisors were less aware of thevalue of their work. Both groups,however, indicated that the keyto the supervisors’ effectivenesswas their ability to be enthusias-tic, available, helpful, encourag-ing and supportive.
Having dinner in a countryrestaurant is clearly not a part ofany formal curriculum, and yet itlooked to me like an extremelyimportant part of solidifying theconnection between those con-sultants and their registrars.Although the specialist registrarswould be returning the next dayto their world of super-specialisedquaternary hospitals and profes-sorial units, they would be takingwith them an immensely valuablegift from their rural colleagues.I did the same.
THE CLINICAL TEACHER ONPUBMED
Late in 2010 we were pleased tobe notified by the National Library
of Medicine in the USA that TheClinical Teacher had been selectedfor inclusion on the MEDLINEdatabase, allowing its contents tobe easily found through the Pub-Med search interface. This repre-sents a big step forward for thejournal as it enters its eighth yearof publication. Achieving a MED-LINE listing will not alter thepurpose of The Clinical Teacher,which remains steadfastly to pro-vide clinicians with reliable,readable and practical informa-tion about medical education. Wedo think that having our articlessearchable via PubMed willencourage authors to contributehigh-quality manuscripts to thejournal, while also making it eas-
ier for clinicians to find snippetsof information when they mostneed it.
Many thanks to Professors SirGraeme Catto, Georges Bordageand Cees van der Vleuten for theirsupport of the application, and toGavin Sharrock and Sue Symonsfor helping to build the case.2011 is shaping up as a veryexciting year for The ClinicalTeacher, so please be a part of thejournal.
Steve TrumbleEditor in Chief
2 � Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2011. THE CLINICAL TEACHER 2011; 8: 1–2