Life is good! Isn’t it wonderful we can do what we really like to do? Besides that what we do helps other people and we even get paid for that! Knowledge is among us, it is not in us; all together we know everything. It was really nice of ENTOG to remind us we should improve ourselves as trainers and train in a more structured way. Within the EBCOG SCTA (Standing Committee for Training and Assessment) we soon found out that all over Europe we face the same challenges in training.
First of all I would like to thank all authors and referees. Most authors are friends, doctors and professors from many European countries: Rudi Campo, Tahir Mahmood, Juha Makinen, Norbert Pateisky, Karen Rose, Fedde Scheele and Juriy Wladimiroff. I could never thank them enough for their enthusiasm! My special thanks to colleagues I do not know personally, they were asked by my friends to contribute: Antoine Watrelot, Jussi Mertsola and Diogo Ayres de Campos. I never met Sylvia Cruess from Canada. By reading the book Teaching medical professionalism which she co-authored, I dreamed how valuable it would be to have her contribution on professionalism in this Monograph. As a real professional, convinced that teaching professionalism is extremely important, she did not hesitate a moment and agreed to write a paper.
All authors are internationally renowned with vast experience in different fields of our profession. Their expertise is visible and palpable in the articles, which are simple and practical in the best sense of the word. Most authors have a longer experience in the field of medical education than I do. I have been teaching students and trainees for more than 35 years but I was never until recently been taught how to teach and train. Adult education, medical education specifically, is a science that develops as well as other sciences do. Future doctors face different circumstances than we did. With all our knowledge, skills, attitude and experience we are obliged to make the best possible future for all of us: trainees, trainers and, most important, patients!
Last and most, I want to thank Willem Ombelet, Editor-in-chief of “Facts, Views & Vision in ObGyn”. He is not only a perfect editor but a visionary with realistic views which is so much needed in these days! Without his positive encouragement, perfect but simple solutions and support there would be no Monograph at all.
The sooner we realise that trainers learn from trainees as much as trainees learn form trainers, the sooner the training will be fun for all of us.
