doc·tor
Origin: Latin doceo, docere, docui, doctus.
To teach, show, point out.
To teach.
A-B-C, um… T. Always Be Teaching. As physicians, we are fortunate to be granted a position of trust, not only by our patients, but by our colleagues, staff, family, and friends. We have two ways of handling that trust: (1) to capitalize on it to make easy decisions without explanation (2) to take the modicum of auto-trust and grow it further by proving ourselves and thus generating an even greater return on trust for the future. And so it is that I believe the best physicians are those who take every clinical encounter, family member query, or resident interaction as an opportunity for education.
To show.
Adult learners are different. It is clear that they learn principally through experience, gleaning from it pieces of knowledge which they then incorporate into their previously built mosaic of understanding. In doing so, then, they make split-second decisions as to the utility of the education they are receiving. As the educators, we can no longer rest on our laurels and simply state. Rather, we must show: show how we made this decision, show the data behind our thought processes, and show the end results of a particular choice.
To point out.
And last, my role as an educator is also to facilitate thoughtful compare and contrast exercises. Data is easily gleaned from books, but to truly understand an illness, a management plan, a diagnostic decision, etc. is to be able to be able to distinguish it from a near relative. My role is to help the learner stratify facts and generate meaningful connections between them.
