Learning While Teaching

Brand new attending teaching brand new medical students.
Introduction to Medical Interviewing requires prudence.
Open-ended questions and choosing a more inclusive phrase.
I do my best to incorporate these in my own practice in useful ways

Third year medical students join me for these clinic days.
Their questions lead to UpToDate and PubMed forays.
My (limited) clinical experience for context is added.
In this way, both of our knowledge banks are padded.

A medical student asks to do research with me
Qualitative—something from which I usually flee.
I borrow a qual book from a doctoral friend
Unexpectedly, a new idea blossoms in the end.

Residents approach with questions of professionalism.
My advice is filtered through a multifaceted prism.
A prism made of the patients and mentors who guide,
Who may not even know of the direction they provide.

Residents want to improve their feedback and morning report.
The skills I learn in my med ed courses are of this sort.
I pass on these lessons using a new teaching technique
At times, this all happens within the same week.

This learning while teaching feeds an insecurity at times.
In my head, the imposter syndrome bell chimes.
Do my colleagues and patients think I’m too green?
Should I have spent a few years in practice in between?

Doubts fade as I discover the benefits of this continuous education.
Humility for me and better care for my patient population.
The joy that comes from a learner’s growth,
The sense of accomplishment for us both.

In this career there will be highs and lows
But I am certain of this path I chose.
This is family medicine—the academic kind.
The landing spot I was fortunate enough to find.