ABSTRACT
Voices of patients talking about their participation in clinical teaching and learning are rarely included in the medical education literature. In this chapter, patients tell stories of their involvement in clinical teaching encounters that reveal their assessment of the students’ emotions, character or motivation. As the previous chapter demonstrates, these stories do important identity work for patients in relation to the students they interact with. Patients sometimes respond to students with empathy and compassion when they perceive their anxiety or apprehension. In other situations, patients evaluate students negatively; one tells a story of how he withdrew his participation from a student as retribution for his perceived moral failings. The analysis of these stories reveals the complex and dynamic power relations operating in clinical teaching encounters. The research interview is revealed as a site for the production of identity, parallels with clinical interactions are identified and the concept of dialogic ways of relating is introduced. The potential benefits and harms for patients that can result from their involvement in clinical teaching and learning are highlighted. Patients are more likely to experience clinical teaching encounters positively when they are given opportunities for their personal stories to be heard.
