Medical teacher
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Medical school professors and lecturers are often called to be practicing clinicians, researchers in their own field, in addition to executing their education and curricular responsibilities. Some further accumulate healthcare management responsibilities. ⋯ This article tries to clarify some concepts and advance why training in management, leadership and health informatics would seem particularly useful for the medical academic. As opposed to the idea of educational dispersion/specialization, the concept of an integrative tetrahedronal education framework is advanced as a way to plan workshops and other faculty development activities which could be implemented transnationally as well as locally.
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Patient-centered communication skills, such as an empathic attitude towards patients and a holistic perspective on health, are difficult to acquire. Designing effective courses requires better understanding of the difficulties that students perceive with learning to talk with patients ⋯ Students experienced moral qualms about applying major aspects of patient-centered interviewing. Instruction in communication skills should aim at filling the students' knowledge gaps and fostering their awareness and expression of emotional perceptions. Long-term relationships with patients could help develop patient-centered communication.