Clinical teaching: maintaining an educational role for doctors in the new health care environment

Context and objectives Good clinical teaching is central to medical educati on but there is concern about maintaining this in contemporary, pressured h ealth care environments, This paper aims to demonstrate that good clinical practice is at the heart: of good clinical teaching. Methods Seven roles are used as a framework for analysing good clinical tea ching. The roles are medical expert, communicator, collaborator, manager, a dvocate, scholar and professional. Results The analysis of clinical teaching and clinical practice demonstrate s that they are closely linked. As experts, clinical teachers are involved in research, information retrieval and sharing of knowledge or teaching. Go od communication with trainees, patients and colleagues defines teaching ex cellence. Clinicians can 'teach' collaboration by acting as role models and by encouraging learners to understand the responsibilities of other health professionals. As managers, clinicians can apply their skills to the effec tive management of learning resources. Similarly skills as advocates at the individual, community and population level can be passed on in educational encounters. The clinicians' responsibilities as scholars are most readily applied to teaching activities. Clinicians have clear roles in taking schol arly approaches to their practice and demonstrating them to others. Conclusion Good clinical teaching is concerned with providing role models f or good practice, making good practice visible and explaining it to trainee s. This is the very basis of clinicians as professionals, the seventh role, and should be the foundation for the further development of clinicians as excellent clinical teachers.