Faculty Development

Patients can be actively involved in teaching in various ways, from real encounters in real-life situations to simulations and videoed patient ‘stories’. In the next six pages we describe some of the commonly used methods.

Real patients in real clinical area

One of the real benefits to learners in working with real patients in the clinical context is for learners to consolidate and synthesise their learning from a range of sources.

Whenever and wherever clinical teaching occurs, real patients are usually the most vulnerable of the three parties involved. Most patients find clinical teaching extremely rewarding, often commenting that they feel students ‘have to learn’, but the patient’s attitude towards being involved in teaching should always be respected and it should be reinforced that, whatever their decision, it will not affect their treatment and care. Within any teaching centre, patients must be made explicitly aware that the facility is a teaching environment and that learners may be present and in some cases helping to provide the care. This allows the patient to prepare for the initial encounter and to raise any anxieties they may have. At all times, the patient needs to be kept informed, mutual agreement needs to be reached about the session and, most importantly, patient privacy and dignity must be maintained.

While using real patients for teaching in clinical areas is often opportunistic (based on who is on the ward or attending the clinic or surgery), newer developments employing simulated patients and trained real patients, such as lay clinical educators or patient educators, are being increasingly used within undergraduate and postgraduate training.