Where do you get your educational passion from?
''For me, the joy of education comes from seeing someone suddenly look at something differently. Not because I gave them the answer, but because a conversation, an experience or a question made them reconsider something. That can happen with a student, but just as easily with an experienced professional.
There are learning moments like this all the time in the workplace, but we do not always recognise or use them. I think that is a missed opportunity. We put a lot of energy into curricula and formal education, while so much learning simply happens during everyday work. I enjoy looking for ways to make better use of that learning and to keep challenging people to develop.''
What teaching moment has always stayed with you?
''There is not one particular moment. What tends to stay with me are the moments when students point out something that we, as educators, have stopped noticing. And sometimes that observation then changes something for the educator as well.
I see this, for example, during the Verwonder- en Verbetergesprekken, dialogue sessions that we developed within our clinical clerkships and are now further developing with the support of a Comenius grant. Students and educators talk about what they notice in the learning environment. Sometimes it is something very small, but those small things can reveal a lot about culture, hierarchy or unspoken expectations. I really value the moments when such a conversation not only helps people understand each other's perspective, but actually leads to something changing afterwards.''
What do you hope to pass on to students?
''That being a good doctor does not mean always having the answer straight away. I hope students remain curious, learn to deal with uncertainty and look critically at their own practice, but also at the habits and routines of the environment in which they work.
Medicine is constantly changing, so we cannot simply teach students everything they will need to know and do later in their careers. More importantly, they need to learn how to keep developing and adapting, without automatically going along with the way things have always been done. And I hope they experience that good healthcare is ultimately something you create together: with patients and with other professionals.''
What are you proud of as a lecturer?
''I am particularly proud of education in which students do not simply receive education, but can actually influence their learning environment. The Verwonder- en Verbetergesprekken are a good example of that for me.
I also really enjoy being involved in the development of the new Master in Medicine curriculum. We are trying to connect learning much more closely to actually taking part in clinical practice. I would like education, patient care and professional development to become less separate from each other. After all, the workplace is not simply where you apply what you learned somewhere else. It is where a great deal of learning actually happens.''
What would you like to try out in your teaching?
''I would like to experiment much more with the learning that simply happens during everyday work. In healthcare, we are learning all the time: after a difficult patient conversation, when something unexpected happens, during a handover or sometimes just in a five-minute conversation with a colleague. But then the day continues and that learning moment can easily disappear.
I would like to explore how we can become better at recognising and using those moments for further development, but without immediately formalising everything, documenting it or turning it into yet another checklist.''