Practice Teaching in Healthcare

Neil Gopee
SAGE Publications, Great Britain (Reprinted 2012)
194 pp., £24.99
ISBN: 978–1-84860–135–2

To date, little work has been synthesised to guide and support health professionals who are upskilling as educators. A timely publication, the author addresses concepts surrounding how to develop expertise and presents the necessary skill set with application of theory and evidence-based examples. This practical text is efficiently organised and logically structured, and evidenced with information designed for everyday implementation.

In conceptualising the motives for the text, the prominent local history and development of specialist and advanced practice roles is addressed. Although it takes into consideration a wide breadth of sources of research and government policy, it is UK-context sensitive with predominate reference made to UK government policy documents. Despite its potential restriction in scope, there is much to be gained from this excellent text for the interested reader. The strength of this publication lies in the practical guidance it provides that goes beyond the realms of ‘descriptive’, underpinned by evidence-based and theoretical frameworks. The book provides more substance than simply outlining necessary skills and attributes for specialist and advanced practice roles, and provides context, principles and guidelines for achieving effective learning outcomes. This includes interpersonal communication, accountability and assessments for practice, all of which are transferable concepts that can be applied irrespective of practice speciality or environmental and organisational setting.

This is a well referenced publication that in addition critically appraises educational pedagogies, for example, taking into consideration catalysts of learning. The author draws on key theories and succinctly defines and applies such principles, for example, components of reflective practice (p.53). While the author includes activities for student review and reflections, perhaps their own professional practice and experience of teaching and learning, or that of potential contributing authors, could be encapsulated in an appendix to broaden the reader’s considerations and awareness of factors to consider in learning and supervision. Nevertheless, this text provides a wealth of informative examples in the form of case studies. The many diagrams, figures and tables further assist the reader to understand and apply particular concepts and frameworks.

This refined text yields well researched and theorised topics surrounding various dimensions of supervisory roles from managing working relationships to facilitating learning and assessing knowledge and competence. A valuable resource for management roles in healthcare, this text provides a solid description linking theory and practice. The final conclusion made by the author succinctly articulates the overarching value in such a text as this, in that, ‘…your actions will contribute to the development of competence in those who follow, and these actions ultimately benefit the health and well-being of those who your students will care for’ (p.169).

Melissa Buultjens
School of Public Health and Human Biosciences
La Trobe University
Melbourne