The topic of whether a non-teaching service adversely affects medication education was brought up recently. Robert Centor with his thoughts on the mattter:
Dr. Wes is correct that some hospitals would rather have private hospitalists care for patients. Program directors and chairs of medicine must fight that trend . . .
. . . I know that it can be done right, because I see it being done right. The key here is that programs must titrate the clinical load to optimize education. Education includes caring for patients, learning at the bedside. We cannot learn medicine at the board, but rather we must have real patients to consider.
