Patients as teachers: promoting their authentic and autonomous voices

Editors’ note: The authors of this toolbox article have been involved in this area of health professional education for many years, and are committed advocates of the inclusion of the patient voice across the continuum of learning and training. The ‘patient as teacher’ movement acknowledges the very active role that patients and communities play in education to complement the learning that takes place during health care delivery and clinical rotations. Patients are thus truly experts, and bring different perspectives and stories to the patient–professional partnership. In this article, Towle and Godolphin give practical guidance in relation to terminology, defi nition of purpose and learning outcomes, recruitment, governance and ethical issues. They highlight the need for careful selection processes and orientation. Students gain most benefi t from longitudinal interactions with the same patients to observe, discuss and refl ect on how health and illness change over time. Teachers, learners and patients need to be aware of the boundaries of these interactions: patients as educators have different roles from the patients presenting for health care services, with whom the students interact. Patient voices are also important in curriculum development and assessment.