Learning from work

Trainees need to know what to learn and consultants need to know what to teach. A syllabus is a list of things to be learned and a curriculum organises this into a scheme for teaching. Curricula for anaesthesia have been developed by individual training schools and by national organisations. * An integrated teaching scheme will need a curriculum and this may be in the form of learning objectives. The organisers will then decide how to satisfy each objective. They will need to decide whether clinical teaching, a lecture or some other sort of learning best meets it. Clinical teaching can satisfy many learning objectives wholly or in part. Clinical work should be arranged so that every trainee gets all the experience that is needed to meet the full range of practical objectives in the curriculum.