Time and Medical Education

4 January 2000 | Volume 132 Issue 1 | Pages 25-28

An indispensable ingredient of good medical education is the presence of enough time to allow educational objectives to be met. The length of study needs to be sufficient for learners to acquire the necessary factual, reasoning, judgmental, and behavioral skills. For medical education to be conducted at the highest level, learners also need sufficient contact time with patients, and faculty need enough time to teach in a thoughtful, Socratic fashion. As the 21st century approaches, time is disappearing from the process of teaching and learning medicine, with disturbing implications for the quality of education. Medical educators in the future must work as hard to defend the availability of sufficient time as they do to acquire new buildings and research funds.

Author and Article Information

From Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri.

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