Teaching context and philosophy

Graduating from UNSW Medicine in 1997 and going onto residency and specialist training in NSW hospitals, it was clear that the clinical environment can be a very harsh one, not just in medical school but in the vulnerable years that follow. I feel compassion and a great deal of empathy for medical students and trainees as they try to find their place in the world and establish their professional identities and careers. Whilst medicine can be the most rewarding of careers, I and my graduating UNSW class were profoundly affected by the loss of several classmates in our trainee years. Hospitals can be complex and risky for junior clinicians whose vulnerabilities are amplified career uncertainties. This has led me to an interest in student and junior doctor wellbeing and resilience as well as vulnerability and burnout. I feel an obligation to prepare our students for the workplace as well as possible, not just in the clinical knowledge and skills but also in their understanding their own capacity and limitations so they can develop into trustworthy health professionals with sustainable careers. Clinical teaching is just fun too; like many of my teaching hospital colleagues, I would continue to teach for free.

In terms of a personal teaching philosophy and context, as a practicing specialist physician I offer students contemporary medical expertise with the authenticity of decades of clinical experience in teaching hospitals and community practice. I apply this real-world experience to teaching, and in the design of learning activities and assessment that make sense in the workplace. Although I am capable of simply transferring information, I try to consistently employ a constructivist framework, seeking to understand where they are as adult learners, and employing dialogue where possible to build on their foundations. I seek to deepen clinical reasoning and systems thinking in addition to checking the students have a handle on evidence based critical content. As my students know, I share and learn from my uncertainties and mistakes, and I expect them to do the same. I do not shy away from empathy, fatigue, uncertainty or failure. These experiences can nourish with a growth mindset (recent terminology, old wisdom) to keep us, students and teachers alike, learning and resilient. There is no point at which I feel I would be satisfied to have learned enough, and I see in our students that this is the case with them also.

I have come to a point in my career where I realise that a good use of my professional time is to help build interprofessional learning environments that benefit healthcare students and the busy clinicians that teach them. This will have flow on benefits to patients and society. Vocationally, I am a clinician and teacher, both activities bring a wellspring of professional fulfilment; but as a medical education leader I see the vulnerability of learners, teachers, patients as well as organisations as we negotiate risky healthcare environments. Building deserved trust between healthcare education stakeholders, inclusive of vulnerable groups and individuals, is difficult, but this clear intent has motivated my research and is a guiding light whenever I have the opportunity to advocate.