Barriers and challenges in training health care providers for patient education

Patient education and chronic illness are linked inextricably in the training of health care providers as we move to the year 2000. However, professional training remains organised around the traditional clinical interview with its focus on acute illness. Research into aspects of the health care consultation is well advanced, but we are only just beginning to understand the implications of the long-term interaction between patient and provider in the management of illnesses which cannot be cured. The challenges for health care providers are: to relinquish control of the consultation when it is appropriate; to be aware of the human biases affecting clinical judgment; to develop a professional approach to the human aspects of their relationships with patients and other professionals as part of a management team; and to focus on the longer term relationship and long-term benefit to the patient.