The current emphasis on providing quality undergraduate and postgraduate medical education has focused attention on the educational responsibilities of all doctors. There is a greater awareness of the need to train doctors as educators and courses have been set up to satisfy this need. Some courses, such as those on how to conduct appraisal, are speci®c to one task facing a medical educator. Other courses take a broader view and relate educational theory to practice. In this paper we describe an outcome-based approach in which competence in teaching is de®ned in terms of 12 learning outcomes. The framework provides a holistic approach to the roles of the teacher and supports the professionalism of teaching. Such a framework provides the basis for the development of a curriculum for teaching excellence. It helps to de®ne important competences for different categories of teachers, communicate the areas to be addressed in a course, identify gaps in course provision, evaluate courses, assist in staff planning and allow individuals to assess their personal learning needs. The framework is presented to encourage wider debate.

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The coefficient of static friction for infants SIR,-We were interested to read Dr H B Valman's article (1 March, p 620) concerning the management of vomiting in the newborn. We would, however, like to question the mechanics of nursing a baby prone with the mattress at an angle of 30-45°. The photograph accompanying the article shows a baby tilted at slightly less than 10'.