Teaching and Learning in Medicine最新文献

Introduction: Patriarchal norms continue to disadvantage women in Graduate Medical Education (GME). These norms are made salient when women trainees are pregnant. Although it is known that pregnant trainees experience myriad challenges, their experiences have not been examined through the lens of gendered organizations. To understand why these challenges persist, this study critically examined the experiences of pregnant trainees and their program directors (PDs) with navigating pregnancy. Methods: From October 2022 to April 2023, we recruited 13 resident or fellow trainees who experienced pregnancy while in training and their corresponding PDs. Data, in the form of semi-structured interviews, were collected, transcribed, and analyzed using thematic analysis. Guiding the analysis was feminist theory, in particular Acker's conceptualization of the ideal worker. The ideal worker norm promotes a culture of individuals who are singularly dedicated to their work with no external distractions or demands upon their time or effort. Results: Both sets of participants struggled with medicine's image of the ideal worker (i.e., a selfless and untethered professional). Trainees experienced guilt for using entitlements meant to assist them during this time, concern that their requests for help would signal personal weakness, and pressure to sacrifice their own wellbeing for work. While most PDs were aware of these phenomena, they experienced varying degrees of success in combating the negative effects of the ideal worker norm. Discussion: In each case, the image of the ideal worker lurked in the background of medical training, shaping trainees' experiences and PDs' perceptions and guidance. This study shows that even though the number of women has increased in medicine, the profession's underlying culture continues to signal that they must live up to the profession's expectations of the ideal worker.

Purpose: Education on medical Spanish, defined as the use of Spanish by clinicians for communication with patients, has proliferated rapidly since the first guidelines were published in 2008. This study aims to characterize the scope of the field, identify gaps, and propose emerging questions for future study. Method: The authors conducted a narrative review of the medical Spanish education literature published from 2000 to 2023. First, a comprehensive search algorithm was developed across three databases (Medline, Scopus, and Web of Science Core Collection) and conducted on August 2, 2023. Two reviewers then independently assessed articles for inclusion/exclusion and subsequent categorization of included articles. Results: The search identified 1,303 articles, and authors added ten articles from other sources. A total of 138 individual articles were included in the final categorization and sub-analysis. There has been an upward trend in the number of articles published yearly since 2000. Most publications were educational interventions (67/138, 49%), followed by commentaries/perspectives (27/138, 20%), proficiency testing (17/138, 13%), needs assessments (16/138, 12%), reviews (6/138, 4%), and vocabulary analyses (5/138, 4%). Slightly over half of publications (72/138, 52%) were centered on physicians or physicians-in-training, with 23 (17%) articles applicable across health professions, and a few focused on pharmacists, nurses, physical therapists, psychologists, physician assistants, and genetic counselors. The vast majority (119/138, 86%) were published in medical/scientific journals and 19 (14%) in language/humanities journals. All but two first authors were affiliated with United States institutions, representing 30 states and Puerto Rico. Conclusions: Over the past two decades, many medical Spanish educational interventions have been published, and several assessment tools have been developed and validated. Gaps remain in evaluation data to demonstrate course effectiveness, the use of pedagogical frameworks to guide curricula, faculty development opportunities, and the role of heritage Spanish learners. Future work should address medical Spanish gaps in health professions and medical specialties, explore patient-engaged approaches to research, and evaluate longitudinal outcomes.

Phenomenon: Trainees from racial/ethnic backgrounds underrepresented in medicine (RE URiM) in the United States face challenges of racism and micro- and macro-aggressions during residency. Many have learned to navigate these challenges through successes and failures, but there is insufficient literature providing these lessons to graduating URiM medical students. Our study among medical school alumni explores strategies to help graduating URiM students prepare for success in residency. Approach: We conducted an online cross-sectional survey (Qualtrics) from February to March 2022. Graduates from a Northeast U.S. medical school identifying as URiM were invited to participate. With emphasis on "thriving" in residency training, we solicited rating-scale responses on preparedness for residency and open-text responses on strategies for success. Standard statistical and text content analysis were used to determine findings and themes. We used Word Cloud technology to further explore word frequency and patterns. Findings: Of the 43 alumni contacted, 23 (53%) completed the survey. Participants were trained in various specialties. We identified three themes with regard to strategies for thriving in residency: (1) importance of identifying and seeking early mentorship; (2) importance of identifying and having diverse forms of support; and (3) need for more education on navigating macro/microaggressions. Insight: While advocating for systems-level interventions to create inclusive learning environments, we highlight the gap in trainee awareness of the importance of seeking early mentorship. Our study provides strategies for graduating URiM medical students to succeed in residency based on respondent experiences. These recommendations should inform medical school curricula.

Phenomenon: In China, medical English courses are critical to medical education, equipping Chinese students with the linguistic tools necessary for international medical practice and collaboration. However, a disconnect persists between the pedagogical approaches of medical practitioners and language educators, leading to a curriculum that emphasizes grammatical accuracy over practical communication skills. This misalignment results in student disengagement and falls short of addressing the real-world demands of the medical profession. With the growing importance of English proficiency in the global health sector, the need for significant improvements in medical English education is evident. This study delves into the underlying causes of student demotivation and aims to reconcile educational delivery with the evolving expectations of the medical field. Insights gained from this research will inform targeted interventions, promising to enhance medical English courses and support improved educational experiences for Chinese medical undergraduates. Approach: This cross-sectional quantitative study surveyed 3,046 second-year medical students from four medical universities in Guangdong Province, China, leveraging means-analysis and Expectancy-Disconfirmation Theory (EDT) as its foundation. The research was conducted at the end of the 2022-2023 academic year, utilizing a questionnaire to assess students' perceptions of their medical English courses. Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) was the primary analytical tool to discern discrepancies between students' expectations and experiences. Findings: The IPA revealed that course content, classroom environment, and instructor effectiveness were pivotal factors influencing the perceived quality of the medical English courses. Students expressed a need for practical and relevant course material, with current content and textbooks falling short of preparing them for future medical communication demands. Additionally, while learning technologies were acknowledged, there was a discernible preference against their excessive application, suggesting a misalignment between student satisfaction and learning outcomes. Insights: This study highlights the need for innovative staffing models, refined qualifications for part-time instructors, development of collaborative and practical teaching materials, and focused training for medical English instructors. It also emphasizes the judicious integration of e-learning to enhance the learning experience. These insights aim to improve instruction quality by informing potential pedagogical adjustments and resource allocations in medical English education.

The health professions education literature often assumes that diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts naturally uplift Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). However, when the most common manifestation of DEI efforts, DEI trainings, are examined, there is little evidence to support this assumption. Metanalyses show evaluation and research studies on DEI trainings seldom ask about the experiences of BIPOC participants, and the few that do complicate this happy narrative. To do DEI work that is transformative, we need to center the perspectives and experiences of individuals who share a history of oppression.

This study began in 2022 as an evaluation of a DEI training program. It evolved into a case study after the discovery of identity-based harm in a subset of participant surveys. Using a critical lens, this research centers the experiences of those who identified as BIPOC. A semi-structured interview guide based on the evaluation findings was used to interview eight BIPOC individuals, five faculty and three staff members. Two researchers analyzed the interviews using reflexive thematic analysis to generate themes. Then, the primary author used Critical Race Theory's counterstorytelling methodology to synthesize the interview themes, evaluation findings, fieldnotes and research artifacts into a counterstory on DEI trainings.

The counterstory confronts the dominant narratives about DEI training. Such training is not always a transformative education process that uplifts everyone. The counterstory problematizes pedagogies that instrumentalize racial trauma for the benefit of white learners, instructional content that activates racial trauma without the means to process it, and DEI efforts that are performative rather than transformative.

This counterstory identifies the ways in which oppressive and racist structures are felt and reproduced in settings meant to uproot it. Although there are no neat answers as to how we might interrupt these systems, critical questions can help to interrogate our assumptions about DEI trainings and (re)-center those pushed to the margins so that we may find our way forward.

Patients have long been involved in health professional education in placement and fieldwork contexts. However, such contexts have been oriented to learning about rather than with patients. Increasing patient involvement in future health professionals' education has been an area of growing scholarly interest in recent decades. Due to the variation in patient involvement across contexts, most literature reviews on this subject have taken a broad conceptual approach. However, with the shift toward more participatory approaches in healthcare generally, we were interested in how patient partnership specifically was represented in health professional education. Our review aims to support educators seeking to enhance health professional education and patient care by critically examining the evolving and varied understandings of patient partnership in health professional education. Using a qualitative synthesis approach, we conducted a comprehensive search of five databases, selecting a final sample of 71 articles. We identified five overarching themes: 1. Rationales for patient partnership reflect a spectrum from transformative commitments to policy drivers; 2. Diverse theoretical and conceptual imaginings of patient partnership; 3. Enacting patient partnership: Effort, time, emotional labor, ethics, and outcomes; 4. Impactful patient partnerships demand that patients and carers are seen by students and educators as people to learn from and with; and 5. Sustainable and inclusive patient partnerships require relational and structural support. We discuss the aspects of health professional education where patient partnership is most meaningful. We recommend investing time, support, and resources to enable the creation of long-term partnerships that emphasize relational processes where shared understandings and diverse perspectives are nurtured. We also advocate for more curriculum flexibility and critical perspectives to push the boundaries of patient partnership in health professional education. An area for further research is evaluating the impact of long-term patient partnerships, including those sustained beyond graduation, as students move into their professional roles.

Theory: Impostor phenomenon (IP) is strongly linked to physician burnout, but the nature of this association is not well understood. A better grasp of the mechanism between these constructs could shed new light on ways to mitigate physician IP and burnout. Grounded in self-determination theory (SDT), the present study explores whether and how residents' general causality orientations at work-impersonal, controlled, and autonomous-each moderate the effect of IP on physician burnout. Hypotheses: We theorized that the autonomous orientation would buffer the facilitative effect of IP on burnout, while the controlled and impersonal orientations would each enhance it to varying degrees. Method: Two hundred forty-three residents from the Universities of Saskatchewan, Calgary, and Alberta, across various programs, specialties, and years of training, completed a survey containing demographic questions and three previously validated instruments: the Clance Impostor Phenomenon Scale, Causality Orientations at Work Scale, and Oldenburg Burnout Inventory. We used partial correlation analyses to test our moderation hypotheses. Results: In line with what we expected, the autonomous causality orientation buffered the facilitative effect of IP on burnout, while the controlled and impersonal causality orientations each enhanced it. Conclusions: Results suggest that possessing a stronger autonomous causality orientation (and creating learning/work environments that prime it) will dampen the effect of IP on burnout, while possessing a stronger controlled or impersonal causality orientation (and creating learning/work environments that prime them) will each augment it. Findings and their implications are discussed in terms of instigating theory-informed, system-level wellness interventions in graduate medical education.

Phenomenon: With the proliferation of pass/fail grading practices in the pre-clerkship phase of undergraduate medical education, questions arise about the transparency and variability of grading and grade reporting practices, raising issues of equity in assessment, particularly regarding residency matching. The purpose of this survey was to determine the remediation and academic performance reporting practices of United States (U.S.) allopathic medical schools in the pre-clerkship phase of their curricula. Approach: After an extensive literature search and feedback from curriculum deans and learning experts, we developed a survey that we sent in the Spring of 2022 to pre-clerkship curriculum officials at all 154 accredited U.S. allopathic medical schools. It addressed curriculum content and structure; pre-clerkship remediation (e.g., course retakes) and reporting (e.g., permanency of transcript notation) practices; documentation and reporting of nonacademic competencies; and participant opinions and recommendations regarding reporting, transparency, and equity. We generated descriptive statistics and did manifest coding of open-ended responses. Findings: We had a response rate of 40% (62/155), with over 71% indicating mainly organ systems-based curricula. Depending on the situation, there were a wide range of remediation approaches for single- and multiple-course failures, including tutoring or learning support, re-exams, and referrals to a promotion board. Professionalism concerns were a top priority to report to residency directors, with significant variability in respondent opinions and practices in reporting remedial activities. Respondents were concerned about equity, both in terms of flexible grading practices and transparency of reporting practices. Insights: The variability in reporting practices across schools, while allowing holistic and individualized approaches to academic support, also creates potential inequities. More work is needed to understand how different reporting practices across institutions may disadvantage marginalized and minoritized student groups at different points in their preparation.