Mixed metaphors

Abstract

If a journal such as The Clinical Teacher, aimed as it is at the busy clinical practitioner, is going to hit the spot, the content obviously needs to be varied and interesting enough to hook the unwitting potential reader. Having risen to the bait, once they've read and digested the article that caught their eye, the chances are that something else will interest, then something else, and so on and so on, until the journal has been read from cover to cover. What's more, the reader, by now, will be cajoling their local Education Centre Library to take out a block subscription to the journal whilst enthusiastically encouraging their colleagues to take a look, setting in motion a cascade of interest…soon everyone is reading The Clinical Teacher, and…OK, fantasy over. But the journal content certainly needs to appeal to a range of interests, and I think this issue of The Clinical Teacher is a good example. We have themed the content to reflect three areas of contemporary concern to those involved in clinical education and training: the social responsiveness of medical schools; personal and professional development; and patient safety and simulation. Medical schools have been exhorted to become more socially responsive, the ultimate aim being to produce graduates who are better orientated to the needs of the communities they serve. Papers on cultural competence, community-based medical education, and a report of an innovative approach to widening access through outreach, including a participating student's views, address this important area. Personal and professional development is another aspect of medical training currently exercising educators’ minds. There are two papers in this theme, one on the use of portfolios, the other on the challenge of training the trainers to take on new assessment roles (in this case, assessing Foundation trainees). Patient safety as a distinct subject is a (relatively) ‘new kid on the block’ in medical education, and the first paper in this section gives an overview of what clinical teachers should know about the topic. Inextricably linked with patient safety is the use of simulation, and two papers tackle this, one describing how to bridge the gap between simulation in the classroom and the realities of the clinical environment, the other an overview of the use of simulation in teaching and assessment – the comment by the author of the latter paper, that we are at the start of ‘a very long journey’ suggests this won't be the last time the topic crops up in The Clinical Teacher. Finally, along with the regular features of Digest and In Brief, we have an ‘Airmail’ from Eire, in which the authors describe and discuss new policy developments in medical education, which, although specific to Ireland, have a familiar ring to them, not least the challenges of introducing graduate entry and the sustainability of programmes in the context of increased student numbers and stretched clinical facilities. So that's it for this issue. Hooked? I hope so. Apologies for the mixed metaphors…I appreciate there are more there than you can shake a stick at…