A Mile Wide but 1 Cell Thick: The Need to Prioritize Learning in Graduate Medical Education

Exploring residents and supervisors’ workplace learning needs during postgraduate medical education

“…Our results indicate that both entities currently have their value, but there is still room for improvement in balancing working and learning. Time constraints are often cited as a challenge, 7 , 20 as participants reported frustration regarding non-educational patient care administrative tasks and the lack of protected time for structured formal learning. 21 The focus groups revealed that there is often insufficient time available at the workplace to dedicate to education, which is reflected in several themes.…”

“…22,23 According to our results, training objectives were not being utilized effectively, and many residents reported that the existing training objectives were not sufficiently clear, which was felt to have a great impact on WPL as reflected in the existing literature. 7,24 In addition to defining discipline-specific competencies as training objectives, there is a growing need to foster the development of transferable skills, which are increasingly important for physicians in the current medical landscape. 25 To optimize the PGME experience, it is important to align and complement the training objectives of WPL and formal lessons as they complement each other's deficiencies.…”

“… 5 , 6 This shift in focus has led scientific research to explore the learning processes that occur in the clinical workplace. 7 As a result, there has been an increase in the literature examining the enablers and challenges of workplace learning practices in clinical settings. 1 , 2 , 8 - 12 …”

“…5,6 This shift in focus has led scientific research to explore the learning processes that occur in the clinical workplace. 7 As a result, there has been an increase in the literature examining the enablers and challenges of workplace learning practices in clinical settings. 1,2,[8][9][10][11][12] The majority of literature on residents' and supervisors' experiences has focused on specific educational topics, such as workplace-based assessment and feedback, or disciplines, such as internal or surgical medicine.…”