How to Teach in Busy Clinical Settings

Abstract

Teaching medical students and house staff is a primary reason for seeking a position in academic medicine. The opportunity to offer knowledge and positively affect future generations of physicians is exciting and gratifying [1]. Certainly, challenges emerge that can adversely affect teaching opportunities. These include time constraints, increasing attending physician workload and care responsibilities [2], HIPAA and privacy regulations, and house staff work hour restrictions [3] to name a few. Even residents have noticed a 'decrease in quality of faculty teaching and decrease in educational satisfaction' [4] since ACGME work hour restrictions have gone into effect. The complexity and amount of ever-evolving information to be delivered during this time of training is unparalleled. Beyond the scientific and humanistic information to be assimilated, students and residents face issues of life and death, family struggles, grueling call schedules, and board examinations. The role of the attending physician in the education, support, and development of future generations of doctors cannot be overstated, and as such is a career satisfaction point for almost all academic physicians [5]. Increased regulations, time constraints, and the ever present 'tyranny of the urgent' need not overshadow critical teaching opportunities. Rather, successful institutions have set aside protected time for education, and attending physicians have needed to become more focused and intentional in these efforts. Depending on whether the teaching is occurring on the hospital wards (inpatient) or in the ambulatory clinic setting (outpatient), recognizing and seizing the opportunity is key. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)