Bedside teaching with unwell patients: Can it ever be appropriate?

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Clinical Skills Training

Background:

• Bedside teaching, a traditional medical education method, is experiencing a decline.
• Key challenges include time constraints for senior clinicians and limited availability of suitable patients for examination.

Purpose of the Study:

• To highlight the importance of bedside teaching with unwell patients for medical students.
• To advocate for overcoming barriers to facilitate this crucial learning experience.

Main Methods:

• The study reflects on experiences organizing a bedside teaching course for final-year medical students.
• It identifies patient availability as a significant limiting factor, with unwell patients often being excluded.

Main Results:

• Excluding unwell patients deprives students of valuable learning opportunities in physical diagnosis.
• Simulation, while useful, cannot fully replace the authentic experience of bedside teaching.

Conclusions:

• Identifying unwell patients and their physical signs is a priority for medical training.
• Bedside teaching involving unwell patients should be encouraged when patients are not under duress.