Physicians' lifelong learning journeys: A narrative analysis of continuing professional development struggles.

INTRODUCTION: Despite tenacious efforts of continuing professional development (CPD) developers and educators, physician engagement in CPD is fraught with challenges. Research suggests that these educational interventions and the maintenance of professional competence systems that mandate them are often seen as impractical, decontextualized and check-box activities by participants. This study explores physicians' learning post graduate medical education (GME) training across their CPD journey to understand how they (a) conceive of themselves as learners and (b) engage in lifelong learning across the course of their professional careers. METHODS: Using narrative inquiry and holistic narrative analysis situated within a social constructivist orientation, we carried out individual interviews with physicians from across a large children's hospital network including academic hospitals, community hospitals and primary care practices. Timelines and story arcs were used to support the narrative analysis's re-storying. RESULTS: Twelve physicians from six different sub-specialties were interviewed. We identified three noteworthy challenges as particularly salient across participants' re-storied narratives: (i) train-on-a-track to treading water, (ii) learning takes a backseat, and (iii) learning through foraging or hunting and gathering. Participants described significant change when transitioning from GME to CPD learning. While participants identified as learners, they described the disorienting impact of losing GME's formal supports and structures. They articulated that patient care trumped learning as their top priority. They lamented having limited insight into their learning needs (e.g. little feedback data) and so resorted to engaging in CPD activities that were readily at hand-but not necessarily relevant-and to finding learning resources that might not be formally recognised for CPD credit. CONCLUSIONS: Physicians' learning journeys post-GME are challenging, and the systems created to support that learning are ill equipped to meet the needs of physicians transitioning from GME to CPD. To encourage meaningful learning, the complex interplay of factors impeding CPD engagement should inform future innovations.

Occupying liminal spaces: The figured worlds of student affairs senior leaders in the United States.

INTRODUCTION: Student Affairs Senior Leaders (SASLs) in the United States lead offices responsible for academic advising, administrative documentation, scheduling, student health, financial aid, and transition to residency, yet they infrequently draw attention in the field's literature. We explore the role of SASLs and how they describe the social space of medical education. METHODS: Using a constructivist approach informed by Figured Worlds theory, we conducted a sequential narrative and thematic analysis of the stories SASLs tell about their roles and experiences in the world of medical education. RESULTS: SASLs inhabit complex roles centred on advocating for medical students' academic, personal and social well-being. Their unique position within the medical school allows them to see the harm to vulnerable students made possible by misalignments inherent within medical education. Yet even with the challenges inherent in the environment, SASLs find reasons for hope. CONCLUSION: SASLs' identities are full of potential contradictions, but they have a unique view into the often-chaotic world of medical education.

Qualitative investigation of military surgical resuscitation teams: what are the drivers of success of a rapid response team?

OBJECTIVES: This qualitative study explores the characteristics of a specialised military medical rapid response team (MRRT), the surgical resuscitation team (SRT). Despite mixed evidence of efficacy, civilian MRRTs are widely employed, with significant variation in structure and function. Recent increased use of these teams to mitigate patient risk in challenging healthcare scenarios, such as global pandemics, mass casualty events and resource-constrained health systems, mandates a reconceptualisation of how civilian MRRTs are created, trained and used. Here, we study the core functions and foundational underpinnings of SRTs and discuss how civilian MRRTs might learn from their military counterparts. DESIGN: Semistructured interview-based study using Descriptive Qualitative Research methodology and Thematic Analysis. SETTING: Remote audio interviews conducted via Zoom. PARTICIPANTS: Participants included 15 members of the United States Special Operations Command SRTs, representing all medical specialties of the SRT as well as operational planners. RESULTS: Adaptability was identified as a core function of SRTs and informed by four foundational underpinnings: mission variability, shared values and principles, interpersonal and organisational trust and highly effective teaming. Our findings provide three important insights for civilian MRRTs: (1) team member roles should not be defined by silos of professional specialisation, (2) trust is a key factor in the teaming process and (3) team principles and values result in and are reinforced by organisational trust. CONCLUSION: This study offers the first in-depth investigation of a unique military MRRT. Important insights that may offer benefit to civilian MRRT practices include enabling the breakdown of traditional division of labour, allowing for and promoting deep interpersonal and professional familiarity, and facilitating a cycle of positive reinforcement between teams and organisations. Future investigation of small team limitations, comparability to civilian MRRTs, and the team relationship to the larger organisation are needed to better understand how these teams function in a healthcare system and translate to civilian practice.

Researching lived experience in health professional education.

INTRODUCTION: Qualitative approaches have flourished in medical education research. Many research articles use the term 'lived experience' to describe the purpose of their study, yet we have noticed contradictory uses and misrepresentations of this term. In this conceptual paper, we consider three sources of these contradictions and misrepresentations: (1) the conflation of perspectives with experiences; (2) the conflation of experience with lived experience; and (3) the conflation of researching lived experience with phenomenology. We offer suggestions to facilitate more precise use of terminology. ARGUMENT: Our starting point is to free researchers from unnecessary shackles: Not every problem in medical education should be studied through experience, nor should every study of experience be phenomenological. Data based on participants' perceptions, beliefs, opinions and thoughts, while based on reflections of experiences, are not in and of themselves accounts of experience. Lived experiences are situated, primal and pre-reflective; perspectives are more abstract. Lived experience-as opposed to experiences as such-deeply attune to bodies, relationality, space and time. There is also a difference between experiences as lived, how a person makes sense of these and what the researcher interprets and represents. Phenomenology is a meaningful approach to the study of lived experience, but other approaches, such as narrative inquiry and self-study, can also offer useful avenues for undertaking this type of research. DISCUSSION: We aim to broaden researchers' scope with this paper and equip researchers with the information they need to be clear about the meaning and use of the terms experience and lived experience. We also hope to open new methodological possibilities for researching experiences as lived and, through highlighting tensions, to prompt researchers of lived experience to strive for ontological closeness and resonance.

The case for metacognitive reflection: a theory integrative review with implications for medical education.

The concepts of metacognitive reflection, reflection, and metacognition are distinct but have undergone shifts in meaning as they migrated into medical education. Conceptual clarity is essential to the construction of the knowledge base of medical education and its educational interventions. We conducted a theoretical integrative review across diverse bodies of literature with the goal of understanding what metacognitive reflection is. We searched PubMed, Embase, CINAHL, PsychInfo, and Web of Science databases, including all peer-reviewed research articles and theoretical papers as well as book chapters that addressed the topic, with no limitations for date, language, or location. A total of 733 articles were identified and 87 were chosen after careful review and application of exclusion criteria. The work of conceptually and empirically delineating metacognitive reflection has begun. Contributions have been made to root metacognitive reflection in the concept of metacognition and moving beyond it to engage in cycles of reflection. Other work has underscored its affective component, transformational nature, and contextual factors. Despite this merging of threads to develop a richer conceptualization, a theory of how metacognitive reflection works is elusive. Debates address whether metacognition drives reflection or vice versa. It has also been suggested that learners evolve along on a continuum from thinking, to task-related reflection, to self-reflection, and finally to metacognitive reflection. Based on prior theory and research, as well as the findings of this review, we propose the following conceptualization: Metacognitive reflection involves heightened internal observation, awareness, monitoring, and regulation of our own knowledge, experiences, and emotions by questioning and examining cognition and emotional processes to continually refine and enhance our perspectives and decisions while thoughtfully accounting for context. We argue that metacognitive reflection brings a shift in perspective and can support valuable reconceptualization for lifelong learning.

How do validity experts conceptualise argumentation? It's a rhetorical question.

INTRODUCTION: Health professions education (HPE) has adopted the conceptualization of validity as an argument. However, the theoretical and practical aspects of how validity arguments should be developed, used and evaluated in HPE have not been deeply explored. Articulating the argumentation theory undergirding validity and validation can help HPE better operationalise validity as an argument. To better understand this, the authors explored how HPE validity scholars conceptualise assessment validity arguments and argumentation, seeking to understand potential consequences of these views on validation practices. METHODS: The authors used critical case sampling to identify HPE assessment validity experts in three ways: (1) participation in a prominent validity research group, (2) appearing in a bibliometric study of HPE validity publications and (3) authorship of recent HPE validity literature. Qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with 16 experts in HPE assessment validity from four different countries. The authors used reflexive thematic analysis to develop themes relevant to their research question. RESULTS: The authors developed three themes grounded in participants' responses: (1) In theory, HPE validity is a social and situated argument. (2) In practice, the absence of audience and evaluation stymies the social nature of HPE validity. (3) Lack of validity argumentation creates and maintains power differentials within HPE. Participants articulated that current HPE validation practices are rooted in post-positivist epistemology when they should be situated (i.e. context-dependent), audience-centric and inclusive. DISCUSSION: When discussing validity argumentation in theory, participants' descriptions reflect an interpretivist lens for evaluation that is misaligned with real-world validity practices. This misalignment likely arises from HPE's adoption of "validity as an argument" as a slogan, without integrating theoretical and practical principles of argumentation theory.

Team Stress and Its Impact on Interprofessional Teams: A Narrative Review.

Phenomenon: Interprofessional healthcare team (IHT) collaboration can produce powerful clinical benefits for patients; however, these benefits are difficult to harness when IHTs work in stressful contexts. Research about stress in healthcare typically examines stress as an individual psychological phenomenon, but stress is not only a person-centered experience. Team stress also affects the team's performance. Unfortunately, research into team stress is limited and scattered across many disciplines. We cannot prepare future healthcare professionals to work as part of IHTs in high-stress environments (e.g., emergency medicine, disaster response) unless we review how this dispersed literature is relevant to medical education. Approach: The authors conducted a narrative review of the literature on team stress experienced by interprofessional teams. The team searched five databases between 1 Jan 1990 and 16 August 2021 using the search terms: teams AND stress AND performance. Guided by four research questions, the authors reviewed and abstracted data from the 22 relevant manuscripts. Findings: Challenging problems, time pressure, life threats, environmental distractors, and communication issues are the stressors that the literature reports that teams faced. Teams reacted to team stress with engagement/cohesion and communication/coordination. Stressors impact team stress by either hindering or improving team performance. Critical thinking/decision-making, team behaviors, and time for task completion were the areas of performance affected by team stress. High-quality communication, non-technical skills training, and shared mental models were identified as performance safeguards for teams experiencing team stress. Insights: The review findings adjust current models explaining drivers of efficient and effective teams within the context of interprofessional teams. By understanding how team stress impacts teams, we can better prepare healthcare professionals to work in IHTs to meet the demands placed on them by the ever-increasing rate of high-stress medical situations.

Demonstrating causality, bestowing honours, and contributing to the arms race: Threats to the sustainability of HPE research.

As the field of health professions education (HPE) continues to evolve, it is necessary to occasionally pause and reflect on the potential effects and outcomes of our research practices. While future-casting does not guarantee that impending negative consequences will be evaded, the exercise can help us avoid pitfalls. In this paper, we reflect on two terms that have taken hold as powerful idols in HPE research that stand above questioning and apart from critique: patient outcomes and productivity. We argue that these terms, and the ways of thinking they uphold, threaten the sustainability of HPE research-one at the level of the community and one at the level of the scholar. First, we suggest that HPE research's history of endorsing a linear and causal association ethos has driven its quest to connect education to patient outcomes. To ensure the sustainability of HPE scholarship, we must deconstruct and disempower patient outcomes as one of HPE's god-terms, as the pinnacle goal of educational activities. To be sustained, HPE research needs to value all of its contributions equally. A second god-term is productivity; it impairs the sustainability of the careers of individual researchers. Problems of honorary authorship, research output expectations, and comparisons with other fields have constructed a space where only scholars with sufficient privilege can prevail. If productivity persists as a god-term, the field of HPE research could decay into a space where new scholars are silenced-not because they fail to make important contributions, but because access is restricted by existing research metrics. These are two of many god-terms threatening the sustainability of HPE research. By highlighting patient outcomes and productivity and by acknowledging our own participation in propagating them, we hope to encourage others to recognize how our collective choices threaten the sustainability of our field.

The figured world of medical education senior leaders: Making meaning and enacting agency.

INTRODUCTION: The field of medical education is relatively new, and its boundaries are not firmly established. If we had a better understanding of the intricacies of the domain, we might be better equipped to navigate the ever-changing demands we must address. To that end, we explore medical education as a world wherein leaders harness agency, improvisation, discourse, positionality and power to act. METHODS: Using the constructivist theory of figured worlds (FW), we conducted a narrative analysis of the stories medical education senior leaders tell about their roles and experiences in the world of medical education (n = 9). RESULTS: We identified four foundational premises about the world of medical education: (i) medical education stands at the intersection of three interrelated worlds of clinical medicine, hospital administration and university administration; (ii) medical education is shaped by and shapes the clinical learning environment at the local level; (iii) medical education experiences ubiquitous change which is a source of power; and (iv) medical education is energised by relationships between individuals. DISCUSSION: Focusing on the FW theory's notions of agency, improvisation, discourse, positionality and power enabled us to describe the world of medical education as a complex domain existing in a space of conflicting power hierarchies, identities and discourses. Using FW allowed us to see the powerful affordances offered to medical education due to its position between worlds amid unceasing change.

Using framework analysis methods for qualitative research: AMEE Guide No. 164.

Framework analysis methods (FAMs) are structured approaches to qualitative data analysis that originally stem from large-scale policy research. A defining feature of FAMs is the development and application of a matrix-based analytical framework. These methods can be used across research paradigms and are thus particularly useful tools in the health professions education (HPE) researcher's toolbox. Despite their utility, FAMs are not frequently used in HPE research. In this AMEE Guide, we provide an overview of FAMs and their applications, situating them within specific qualitative research approaches. We also report the specific characteristics, advantages, and disadvantages of FAMs in relation to other popular qualitative analysis methods. Using a specific type of FAM-i.e. the framework method-we illustrate the stages typically involved in doing data analysis with an FAM. Drawing on Sandelowski and Barroso's continuum of data transformation, we argue that FAMs tend to remain close to raw data and be descriptive or exploratory in nature. However, we also illustrate how FAMs can be harnessed for more interpretive analyses. We propose that FAMs are valuable resources for HPE researchers and demonstrate their utility with specific examples from the HPE literature.

Followership in interprofessional healthcare teams: a state-of-the-art narrative review.

OBJECTIVE: A state-of-the-art (SotA) literature review-a type of narrative review- was conducted to answer: What historical developments led to current conceptualisations of followership in interprofessional healthcare teams (IHTs)? DESIGN: Working from a constructivist orientation, SotA literature reviews generate a chronological overview of how knowledge evolved and presents this summary in three parts: (1) this is where we are now, (2) this is how we got here and (3) this is where we should go next. Using the SotA six-stage methodology, a total of 48 articles focused on followership in IHTs were used in this study. RESULTS: Articles about followership within IHTs first appeared in 1993. Until 2011, followership was framed as leader-centric; leaders used their position to influence followers to uphold their dictums. This perspective was challenged when scholars outside of healthcare emphasised the importance of team members for achieving goals, rejecting a myopic focus on physicians as leaders. Today, followership is an important focus of IHT research but two contradictory views are present: (1) followers are described as active team members in IHTs where shared leadership models prevail and (2) conceptually and practically, old ways of thinking about followership (ie, followers are passive team members) still occur. This incongruity has generated a variable set of qualities associated with good followership. CONCLUSIONS: Leadership and followership are closely linked concepts. For leaders and followers in today's IHTs to flourish, the focus must be on followers being active members of the team instead of passive members. Since theories are increasingly encouraging distributed leadership, shared leadership and/or situational leadership, then we must understand the followership work that all team members need to harness. We need to be cognizant of team dynamics that work within different contexts and use leadership and followership conceptualisations that are congruent with those contexts.

How to use theory as method in HPE research.

Recognising that scholars in health professions education (HPE) are often unfamiliar with theory-informed research, we provide guidance on a robust method for using theory as a method to inform every aspect of research design from research question formation to data analysis and reporting. Using the Figured Worlds theory to illustrate the process, we mapped six concepts of particular importance to HPE: the figured world, agency, improvisation, discourse, positionality and power. Together the concepts were helpful analytic tools for our topic of interest. The concept of the figured world informed the construction of our program of research. Agency was useful in exploring the ways that subjects acted or did not act. We crafted interview questions to illustrate participants' unique improvisations. Discourse, or the world's artefacts both verbal and embodied, informed our understanding of the world's norms. Positionality allowed us to compare the agentic action of different participants. Finally, power offered an opportunity to recognise the intersection of the positional identities of participants and their stories of action or inaction. While theory-informed analytic tools offer an opportunity to construct nuanced understanding, generating new insights into study subjects and their worlds, caution is necessary as qualitative inquiry is an evolving process of give and take. Everything from the study's questions, methods and even theories might need to flex in response to the data. Ultimately, though initially intimidating, theories offer concrete methodological tools HPE scholars can rely on.

Professional identity struggle and ideology: A qualitative study of residents' experiences.

INTRODUCTION: To enter a profession is to take on a new identity. Professional identity formation can be difficult, with medical learners struggling to adopt professional norms. The role of ideology in medical socialisation may offer insight into these tensions experienced by medical learners. Ideology is the system of ideas and representations that dominates the minds of individuals or social groups and calls individuals into certain ways of being and acting in the world. In this study, we use the concept of ideology to explore residents' experiences with identity struggle during residency. METHODS: We conducted a qualitative exploration of residents in three specialties at three academic institutions in the United States. Participants engaged in a 1.5-hour session involving a rich picture drawing and one-on-one interview. Interview transcripts were coded and analysed iteratively, with developing themes compared concurrently to newly collected data. We met regularly to develop a theoretical framework to explain findings. RESULTS: We identified three ways that ideology contributed to residents' identity struggle. First was the intensity of work and perceived expectations of perfectionism. Second were tensions between the developing professional identity and pre-existing personal identities. Many residents perceived messages regarding the subjugation of personal identities, including the feeling that being more than physicians was impossible. Third were instances where the imagined professional identity clashed with the reality of medical practice. Many residents described how their ideals misaligned with normative professional ideals, constraining their ability to align their practice and ideals. CONCLUSION: This study uncovers an ideology that shapes residents' developing professional identity-an ideology that creates struggle as it calls them in impossible, competing or even contradictory ways. As we uncover the hidden ideology of medicine, learners, educators and institutions can play a meaningful role in supporting identity development in medical learners through dismantling and rebuilding its damaging elements.

Do you see what I see? Feeding interprofessional workplace learning using a diversity of theories.

In this Commentary, Stalmeijer and Varpio highlight the importance of using different theoretical frameworks to make visible the potential of and need for research into interprofessional learning and guidance during workplace-based learning in the health professions.

Shame at the Gates of Medicine: A Hermeneutic Exploration of Premedical Students' Experiences of Shame.

PURPOSE: Little is known about the nature of shame in students attempting to enter medical school, despite its potential to impact well-being and professional identity formation during training. In this study, the authors used hermeneutic phenomenology to ask: How do premedical students experience shame as they apply to medical school? METHOD: From September 2020 to March 2021, the authors recruited 12 students from a U.S. Master of Biomedical Sciences program who intended to apply to medical school. Data collection consisted of each participant creating a "rich picture" depicting a shame experience during their premedical training, a semistructured interview that deeply explored this and other shame experiences, and a debriefing session. Data were analyzed using Ajjawi and Higgs's 6 steps of hermeneutic analysis. RESULTS: Self-concept, composed of an individual's identities and contingencies of self-esteem, was central to participants' shame experiences. Through a confluence of past and future self-concepts and under the influence of external factors and the weight of expectations, shame often destabilized participants' present self-concepts. This destabilization occurred because of events related to application processes (repeat Medical College Admission Test attempts), interpersonal interactions (prehealth advisor meetings), and objective performance measures (grades, test scores). Participants' efforts to restabilize their self-concept catalyzed specific identity processes and self-concept formation. CONCLUSIONS: Shame provided a window into the emotional experiences, identity processes, and ideologies that shape students' attempts to enter medical school. The authors discuss the central role of contingencies of self-esteem, the potential origins of performance-based self-esteem in trainees, and the identity negotiation and identity work involved in shame reactions. They call for the adoption of contingencies of self-esteem within current conceptualizations of professional identity formation; training for faculty and prehealth advisors about the nature of shame in premedical learners; and consideration of the consequential validity of standardized tests, which may trigger damaging shame.

Dismantling medical education's incompatible ideology.

More than anything, I care about people. I am concerned about how the practices, structures, values, and ways of thinking embedded in medical education-i.e. our ideology-shape the experiences of people who work in our field. Despite being largely blind to its effects, ideology is powerfully at play in medical education-creating social identities, generating relationship patterns, justifying specific conduct, and maintaining and reproducing social order. Every educational system-including the entire medical education continuum-perpetuates ideology. We train future generations of physicians to uphold behavioral expectations and to maintain a specific social order. However, ideology is not always consistent. Individual aspects of our ideology can be incompatible, and, when they are, it is the people who carry the burden of the resulting tensions. Fortunately, ideology is maintained by our decisions and actions; therefore, we can change our decisions and thereby modify the ideology to work for us, not against us.[Box: see text].

Harnessing a knowledge translation framework to implement an undergraduate medical education intervention: A longitudinal study.

INTRODUCTION: Implementation of evidence-informed educational interventions (EEI) involves applying and adapting theoretical and scientific knowledge to a specific context. Knowledge translation (KT) approaches can both facilitate and structure the process. The purpose of this paper is to describe lessons learned from applying a KT approach to help implement an EEI for clinical reasoning in medical students. METHODS: Using the Knowledge to Action framework, we designed and implemented an EEI intended to support the development of students' clinical reasoning skills in a renewed medical curriculum. Using mixed-methods design, we monitored students' engagement with the EEI longitudinally through a platform log; we conducted focus groups with students and stakeholders, and observed the unfolding of the implementation and its continuation. Data are reported according to six implementation outcomes: Fidelity, Feasibility, Appropriateness, Acceptability, Adoption, and Penetration. RESULTS: Students spent a mean of 24 min on the activity (fidelity outcome) with a high completion rate (between 75% and 95%; feasibility outcome) of the entire activity each time it was done. Focus group data from students and stakeholders suggest that the activity was acceptable, appropriate, feasible, adopted and well-integrated into the curriculum. DISCUSSION: Through the process we observed the importance of having a structuring framework, of working closely and deliberatively with stakeholders and students, of building upon concurrent evaluations in order to adapt iteratively the EEI to the local context and, while taking students' needs into consideration, of upholding the EEI's core educational principles.