How not to do things.

I n regard to demonstrating procedural skills to medical students either in the human physiology lab or the clinical skills centre, I’ve observed teachers typically focus on instructing how a procedure should be done, so that a valid and reliable result can be obtained, but in practice we also express concern with the limited engagement some students show in learning procedural skills. Although we allude to and explain why some precautions should be undertaken in performing a procedure, the experience I wish to share here is the potential value of deliberate demonstration, when appropriate, of how not to do certain things, in addition to showing how to do things right, and using this as a means to promoting learners’ active engagement with the technical concepts underlying the procedure.