Health professional students, including medical students, need to
be flexible to the demands of the environments through which
they rotate. A key concept is the transfer of learning from one
setting to another: from the classroom to the ward, from the
lecture theatre to the surgical theatre, from the clinical skills
laboratory to a patient’s home. This transfer is helped by the move
in modern medical education to case- and problem-based learning
away from didactic lectures, and an emphasis on reasoning rather
than memorising facts. However, sometimes previous learning
inhibits or interferes with education in a new setting or context.
A student, who has received less than glowing feedback while
practising communication skills with simulated patients, may feel
awkward and reticent interacting with patients who are ill.