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PrepMatch

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Healthcare professionals working in university-affiliated hospitals often have to act as teachers to professional school students such as nursing students, medical students, physiotherapy students etc. Without having proper training in education, it's sometimes very difficult for healthcare professionals to implement good teaching strategies.​

  1. Should healthcare professionals who are excellent in their clinical work, but not in their teaching, be laid off from these hospitals?
  2. What teaching strategies do you think will be effective in such hospitals?
  3. In such hospitals, power dynamics often exist between students and instructors. Why do you think this is the case?
Discuss Below !!

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1. No, they should not. While they may not excel in direct teaching or instructing, they benefit hospitals in other wayy that are also influential in people's lives, such as direct clinical work on patients, and even acting as a role model for students to model their clinical work after.
2. I think that hands on and observant teaching strategies where students can improve their clincial work by observing or directly interacting with their patient can be beneficial. Not only are they able to observantly learn from the professionals who are good at clinical work, but they can also learn from their own hands on work with the patient with the professional on the side to potentially add in pointers. This may not be the traditional type of education, but it can still benefit the student. Additionally, this may be less direct than traditional education, which can allow for creative actions and allow students to think through scenarios better.
3. This may be the case because of a lack of communication. The student may inherently fear the instructor due to inherent beliefs of inferiority compared to the instructor, and if those internal fears are not communicated well, it may cause for avoidance. I think it is healthy to know that instructors often have more experience and knowledge than students, but also that they should approach students and their often novel ways of thinking with openness and willingness to listen to hopefully minimize the power imbalance.
 
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