Through the Looking Glass: Communication in the Clinical Workplace

This qualitative study investigates the subject of Clinical Communication and how it is taught, learned and practised in one London Medical School and Hospital. It is informed by theoretical perspectives from workplace learning. Teachers and medical students took part in a series of interviews and ward observations over a period of four months. Teachers were interviewed about their teaching practice, they were asked to observe students in the clinical workplace and finally were asked to reflect upon whether these observations had informed their teaching practice. Students were interviewed about how they had learned and subsequently practised clinical communication in the clinical workplace. Conceptually, this research shifts focus to the clinical workplace as the legitimate location for teaching and learning clinical communication and proposes a new and expanded way of understanding learning in this context.