Ethico-legal considerations of teaching

Abstract

There is an ethical and professional obligation to teach, develop, and maintain skills. There are a number of 'new' challenges to delivering teaching and traditional methods may no longer be professionally and ethically acceptable. Much attention has been given to the content of medical education with less attention to the context. There has been a significant change over the last few decades in terms of the ethical acceptability and professional guidelines governing training and also in terms of the behaviours and values expected of trainees and their clinical and educational supervisors. The appropriateness and process of training delivery in anaesthesia should be case-specific, ethico-legally justifiable, and should pay particular heed to the values of patient autonomy and the role of consent. ©The Author [2013]. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Journal of Anaesthesia. All rights reserved.