Dr Rachel Birch, Medicolegal Consultant at Medical Protection, looks at the valuable contribution sessional GPs can make to teaching and learning within primary care.
Doctors as teachers
As doctors, we are encouraged to share our knowledge and expertise with others, for the benefit of good patient care. In fact, the word “doctor” is derived from the Latin word “docere”, which means “to teach”. The original father of medicine, Hippocrates, taught his students in the shade of a big plane tree. Nowadays teaching locations may not always be so exotic, but the sentiment remains – an important part of the role of being a doctor is to teach medicine.
The General Medical Council advises doctors that they should be:
- “prepared to contribute to teaching and training doctors and students”
- “willing to take on a mentoring role for more junior doctors and other healthcare professionals”
