Podcasts from The Clinical Teacher The Clinical Teacher

By examining what we do as clinicians and teachers, we were able to gather information about how we teach and how our students learn. As we reflected on this information within our small learning community, we began to realise the value of other people’s input as a great source of learning.

A course to introduce incoming third-year medical students to the subject of patient safety, to focus their attention on teamwork and communication, and to create an awareness of patient-safe practices that will positively impact their performance as clinicians.

A practical course on emergency telephone consultations (ECTs) was designed for the medical degree course at the University of Bern Medical School. During the module, each of the volunteer fifth-year medical students had to perform two simulated telephone consultations. Medical students in their first year of medical school acted as simulated patients (SPs), and they gave immediate feedback to the participants.

Teaching sessions were developed and led by a collaborative group of fourth-year medical and nursing students, under the supervision of teaching staff. Each session had different stations aimed at encouraging interdisciplinary discussion between students. A pre- and post-event questionnaire was used to determine students’ views on interdisciplinary learning and teaching.

140 medical students participated in a simulation-based activity focusing on teamwork, task delegation, role clarity and effective communication. Two similar clinical scenarios were presented, and either an HTS or an SP was used. Following each scenario, participants were surveyed on the realism of the simulation and the patient, and also on their self-assessed comfort and competence.

In the context of medical education, students are learning in a variety of physical locations. These various locations require different sets of teaching skills. This describes how as faculty educational developers we worked with clinicians to enhance their role as teachers within busy clinical contexts.