Consultant attitudes to undertaking undergraduate teaching duties: perspectives from hospitals serving a large medical school

Abstract

To overcome barriers to teaching requires more reciprocal links between hospital staff and medical schools, opportunities for consultants to understand and to comment on curricular and timetable developments, and, perhaps most importantly, recognition (in contractual, financial, managerial and personal terms) of the importance of undergraduate teaching in the competing triad of service, research and education.

WATCH: Warwick Assessment insTrument for Clinical teacHing: Development and testing

“…A key reason is that they are at the highest level of experience and are, therefore, assumed to be competent to take on the role of teaching their more junior colleagues and students. However, with the increasing demands of patient care, administrative work, and other activities such as research, senior doctors have less time available to engage in frequent teaching activities (Seabrook 2003;Hendry et al 2005). Consequently, there is an increasing emphasis on junior doctors in postgraduate training taking on formal teaching roles, particularly specialty trainees (also known as registrars and residents) because they are next in seniority and will be expected to teach effectively when they become consultants (specialists) in the future (Johnson et al 1996;Bordley & Litzelman 2000;Busari et al 2003).…”

The doctor as a teacher: the place for professional development

“…A questionnaire survey of consultants in West Midlands suggests that, on average, senior clinicians spend 1-3 h per week teaching undergraduates; less than half thought there was sufficient time for bedside teaching, and only 15% reported having enough time to teach students in outpatients. Other factors deterring clinicians from teaching included lack of resources, perception of teaching as a low-status activity, and the lack of recognition of teachers as an important resource [13]. Despite these reservations, most doctors do teach.…”

A comparison of medical students’ perceptions of their initial basic clinical training placements in ‘new’ and established teaching hospitals

“…The number of students per firm clearly causes some difficulties for students, for example, in terms of clinical learning opportunities. Work we have recently undertaken suggests that consultants too recognise problems with large numbers of students (Hendry et al, 2005). Again, students at the NTH were advantaged with there being fewer students overall during this initial year as a teaching hospital.…”