Responsibilities of Teachers and Learners

Teachers should: 

  • Treat students fairly and respectfully
  • Maintain high professional standards in all interactions
  • Be prepared and on time
  • Provide relevant and timely information
  • Provide explicit learning and behavioral expectations early in a course or clerkship
  • Provide timely, focused, accurate and constructive feedback on a regular basis and thoughtful and timely evaluations at the end of a course or clerkship
  • Display honesty, integrity and compassion
  • Practice insightful (Socratic) questioning, which stimulates learning and self-discovery, and avoid overly aggressive questioning which may be perceived as hurtful, humiliating, degrading or punitive
  • Solicit feedback from students regarding their perception of their educational experiences
  • Encourage students who experience mistreatment or who witness unprofessional behavior to report the facts immediately

Students should:

  • Be courteous of teachers and fellow students
  • Be prepared and on time
  • Be active, enthusiastic, curious learners
  • Demonstrate professional behavior in all settings
  • Recognize that not all learning stems from formal and structured activities
  • Recognize their responsibility to establish learning objectives and to participate as an active learner
  • Demonstrate a commitment to life-long learning, a practice that is essential to the profession of medicine
  • Recognize personal limitations and seek help as needed
  • Display honesty, integrity and compassion
  • Recognize the privileges and responsibilities coming from the opportunity to work with patients in clinical settings
  • Recognize the duty to place patient welfare above their own
  • Recognize and respect patients’ rights to privacy
  • Solicit feedback on their performance and recognize that criticism is not synonymous with “abuse”