Looking forward……

Abstract

As the new joint Editors of The Clinical Teacher, we greatly look forward to engaging health professionals in sharing their innovations and scholarly practices as educators.

Importantly, we acknowledge the wonderful work of Dr Aileen Barrett as Editor across the past three years, in encouraging a warm, inclusive, diverse and creative environment for readers and authors and promoting the scholarly work of early career researchers. In particular, Aileen has set about developing the work of those new to the field through various initiatives to help them find their ‘scholarly voice’ and enhance the legacy of health professions education communities. Notably, it is taking two editors to attempt to fill her shoes…

I (Paul) am Director of the Health Professions Education Unit at Hull York Medical School (HYMS), UK. I joined HYMS in 2019 as Programme Director for the MSc, Postgraduate Diploma and Certificate in Health Professions Education. With a psychology background, I completed my PhD at Durham University in 2015. I have extensive experience in undergraduate and postgraduate medical research including approaches to teaching and learning, professional development and curriculum development.

I (Annette) am Professor of Medial Education at Sydney Medical School, The University of Sydney, Australia, where I completed my PhD in Medical Education in 2013. My teaching and research interests span across disciplines and include topics on clinical teacher training, faculty development, peer assisted learning and team-based learning.

As joint Editors, we are delighted to take on this new challenge as we bring different experiences and share responsibilities in the production of the journal with other team members. We are fortunate to have the support of associate editors, editorial staff, peer reviewers and the production team. In collaboration, we strive to provide an accessible and visible platform for health professionals and educators to share scholarly educational innovations and research. We want you (the reader) to learn something new from every issue; with papers stimulating insight, discussion and innovation, tackling key issues which impact on our field.

As such, The Clinical Teacher offers a range of article types, varying in breadth and depth. For example, the ‘Research’ article type considers what works best for whom in what context and how. In these manuscripts, we are keen to see originality, important, rigorous and practical work which will appeal to our international readership in moving understandings forward. While we are keen to see where initiatives have worked, beyond this, we also want to know how, why and what makes the difference in whether an initiative is successful or not and what are the key implications for clinical teachers. Whereas the ‘Innovation Implementation, Improvement’ article type allows the opportunity to showcase shorter pieces with a strong focus on the innovative design, delivery and evaluation of teaching and learning initiatives. The journal also publishes ‘Viewpoints’, which encourage perspectives on topics of interest that convey key messages for clinical teachers. ‘The Clinical Teacher's Toolbox’ and ‘How to’ provide a space to introduce clinical education topics offering practical value for busy clinical teachers.

In 2024, The Clinical Teacher celebrates 20 years since publishing its first volume. Moving forward, we will strive to strengthen and broaden our established community built up by the esteemed editors over this time. Crucially, we aim to increase the quality and relevance of the work published and encourage authors to carefully read through the guidelines, advice and examples listed on the webpages in developing ideas. We encourage clinical teachers from around the globe to share their evidence-guided experiences in health professional learning and teaching. Moreover, we want the journal to be the invaluable resource for clinical teachers, so if you have any suggestions for developments and ways to enhance the journal, do please get in touch.

Annette Burgess and Paul Crampton

Co-Editors