After all, what is a medical educator?

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This question resonates to the bones…medical students have participated for centuries accompanying expert physicians observing their consultations, visits and even surgeries to learn from the medical practice in situ (Valdez-García, 2007). This has been the prevailing way in which training of new professionals is carried out; however, the profession itself has advanced considerably in the last hundred years through the development of credentialing processes, and ethical standards (Steinert, 2012).

This has created multiple career opportunities within the area of ​​health. In addition to the opportunity for doctors to do a medical residency, and dedicate themselves to clinical-care, they can pursue a career as educators, researchers or a mixture of these. Being of particular interest these last ones which have been recognized in multiple studies as academic doctor, medical teacher, clinical educator or medical educator (Salcedo, 2016, Schuwirth and van der Vleuten, 2006, Roberts, Schwartzstein and Weinberg, 2014, van der Berg, Verberg, Scherpbier, Jaarsma and Lombarts, 2017).

Would you describe yourself as a medical educator?

References:
Valdez-García, J.E.  (2007). Desarrollo histórico de la medicina científica. Avances, 4(12), 35-39.
Steiner, Y. (2012). Faculty development: On becoming a medical educator. Medical Teacher, 34(6), 74-76.
Salcedo, A. (2016). La identidad docente de profesores de posgrados médicos y quirúrgicos en un hospital universitario: una mirada desde las historias de vida. Revista Ciencias de la Salud, 14(1), 75-92.
Schuwirth, L.W., van der Vleuten, C.P. (2006). Challenges for educationalists. BMJ, 333(7567), 544-546.
Roberts, D.H., Schwartzstein, R.M., Weinberger, S.E. (2014). Career Development for the Clinician-Educator. AnnalsATS, 11(2), 254-259.
Van der Berg, J.W., Verberg, C.P.M, Scherpbier, A.J.J.A., Jaarsma, A.D.C., Lombarts, K.M. (2017). Is being a medical educator a lonely business? The essence of social support. Medical Education, 51(3), 302-315.

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