Teaching at the Bedside

Abstract

In this chapter, we explore bedside teaching and its importance in clinical medicine. Bedside teaching was a customary part of training and formalized rounding on the inpatient floor and ICU until recently. As modern medicine has evolved with the advent of new technology, specialized facilities, and duty hour restrictions for trainees, bedside rounding has been depriotitized. Nevertheless, bedside teaching is as relevant today as it was in the mid-seventeenth century. Currently, other teaching modalities have replaced bedside teaching due to its perceived time constraints and emphasis on maximizing efficiency. However, there are countless benefits for bedside teaching and compelling evidence that bedside teaching should play a central role in physician training. Some misperceptions about the limitations of bedside teaching have propagated these sentiments, but the key to success of bedside teaching is through planning and preparation. Included in this chapter are best practice measures that teaching physicians may use to improve not only clinical teaching, but patient centered rounding in the wards, ICU and even in the emergency department and the outpatient settings. The fruits of successful bedside teaching are innumerable and commitment to this modality can be enriching not only to trainees but also to patients and their families’ understanding.