Time for evidence based medical education

Tomorrow's doctors need informed educators not amateur tutors

Education and debate pp 1265−83

No doctor will deny the need for evidence based clinical practice, and all responsible professionals try to keep up with research in their discipline.1 For many, however, the education of the next generation of doctors is also a major responsibility, yet the same professional standards are not so commonly applied. All doctors have been successful medical students, and it seems easy to assume that this alone qualifies them to educate others. Few surgeons would claim that surviving a surgical procedure qualifies a patient to perform it on another, yet how often do we hear, “There was none of this gobbledegook in my day, yet I learnt medicine well. I know about medical education. I'm not going to change.” Why do these attitudes persist? What are the barriers to effective, evidence based medical education, and how may they be overcome?

It is hard for clinical teachers to learn about medical education research, partly because there …