Teaching encourages me to grow and be more rigorous about my own practice. It is fun to watch the residents and students mature from neophytes into independent journey-person practitioners. I get excited when I facilitate a leap in someone's learning. The cultural diversity of the health center's staff and patients is also wonderfully stimulating.
Teaching helps to keep practice fresh.
It provides an opportunity for continuous interaction with people in a variety of levels of training. I benefit from their challenging insights. I have been teaching family practice residents for 18 years. Many are now teachers, program directors, and faculty themselves. Many practice in underserved settings as they learned to do in training.