Advances in health sciences education : theory and practice
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Adv Health Sci Educ Theory Pract · Dec 2017
Developing skilled doctor-patient communication in the workplace: a qualitative study of the experiences of trainees and clinical supervisors.
To inform the development of recommendations to facilitate learning of skilled doctor-patient communication in the workplace, this qualitative study explores experiences of trainees and supervisors regarding how trainees learn communication and how supervisors support trainees' learning in the workplace. We conducted a qualitative study in a general practice training setting, triangulating various sources of data to obtain a rich understanding of trainees and supervisors' experiences: three focus group discussions, five discussions during training sessions and five individual interviews. Thematic network analysis was performed during an iterative process of data collection and analysis. ⋯ Based on the experiences of trainees and supervisors, we conclude that skilled communication involves the development of a personal communication repertoire from which learners are able to apply strategies that fit the context and their personal style. After further validation of our findings, it may be recommended to give learners concrete examples, opportunities for repeated practise and reflection on personal frames of reference and the effect of strategies, as well as space for authenticity and flexibility. In the workplace, the clinical supervisor is able to facilitate all these essential conditions to support his/her trainee in becoming a skilled communicator.
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Adv Health Sci Educ Theory Pract · Dec 2017
Comparative StudyComparison study of judged clinical skills competence from standard setting ratings generated under different administration conditions.
When the safety of the public is at stake, it is particularly relevant for licensing and credentialing exam agencies to use defensible standard setting methods to categorize candidates into competence categories (e.g., pass/fail). The aim of this study was to gather evidence to support change to the Comprehensive Osteopathic Medical Licensing-USA Level 2-Performance Evaluation standard setting design and administrative process. Twenty-two video recordings of candidates assessed for clinical competence were randomly selected from the 2014-2015 Humanistic domain test score distribution ranging from the highest to lowest quintile of performance. ⋯ The two one-sided test procedure established equivalence between panel group means at the 0.05 confidence level, controlling for rater errors within each panel group. From a practical cost-effective and administrative resource perspective, results from this study suggest it is possible to diverge from typical panel groups, who are sequestered the entire time onsite, to larger numbers of panelists who can make their judgments offsite with little impact on judged samples of qualified performance. Standard setting designs having panelists train together and then allowing those to provide judgments yields equivalent ratings and, ultimately, similar cut scores.
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Adv Health Sci Educ Theory Pract · Dec 2017
Using video-reflexive ethnography to capture the complexity of leadership enactment in the healthcare workplace.
Current theoretical thinking asserts that leadership should be distributed across many levels of healthcare organisations to improve the patient experience and staff morale. However, much healthcare leadership education focusses on the training and competence of individuals and little attention is paid to the interprofessional workplace and how its inherent complexities might contribute to the emergence of leadership. Underpinned by complexity theory, this research aimed to explore how interprofessional healthcare teams enact leadership at a micro-level through influential acts of organising. ⋯ Data analysis revealed a complex interprofessional environment where leadership is a dynamic process, negotiated and renegotiated in various ways throughout interactions (both formal and informal). Being able to "see" themselves at work gave participants the opportunity to discuss and analyse their everyday leadership practices and challenge some of their sometimes deeply entrenched values, beliefs, practices and assumptions about healthcare leadership. These study findings therefore indicate a need to redefine the way that medical and healthcare educators facilitate leadership development and argue for new approaches to research which shifts the focus from leaders to leadership.