Educational expectations of professionals who teach in primary health care in Chile

Abstract

With more emphasis on primary health care (PHC) both in the undergraduate and postgraduate curriculum, there is an increasing demand for high quality teaching in primary care centres. However, professionals in low and middle income countries often have little training in teaching. Britain could have an important role in supporting training the trainers in other countries. However the needs of these PHC teachers may differ from those teaching in British PHC. We explore the needs of professionals who teach in PHC in Chile through an online survey and focus groups.All the domains of competence of a clinical educator were considered to be important for training by 83% or more of the questionnaire respondents. 90% of the respondents agreed that PHC professionals should be given permission to attend courses about teaching and preferred B-learning methods. Three dimensions emerged in the focus groups. 1) The specific role of the teacher in PHC. 2) The challenges faced by teachers in PHC. 3) Intuitive teaching. An unexpected theme that emerged was the desire of the teachers to analyse and reflect on their teaching. There are enthusiastic and dedicated professionals in PHC in Chile with a strong felt-need for training in teaching skills.

Training needs and perceptions on teaching in primary care from doctors who teach in primary care in Peru

“…We used a mixed method approach to collect the data; first an online survey was conducted on the needs of doctors who work and teach in PHC in Peru (see Supplementary File 1). The survey was created based on the domains of teaching competence defined by Sherbino, Frank and Snell (2014) and was validated with a panel of PHC expert physicians ( Moore et al , 2020 ). The survey included questions on sociodemographic variables, the importance of 10 competencies for teaching, and the form and feasibility of conducting training in teaching skills for professionals working in PHC.…”

Primary Care Perspectives on Education Scholarship: A Qualitative Synthesis

“…Instructing medical students was perceived as a skill to be continuously developed, though some studies reported a lack of confidence in teaching abilities. 29,41 While some articles investigated residents' clinical teaching experiences, many described practicing physicians who started teaching only when they became attending physicians. 31,40 Without prior experience or formal teacher training, many reported acquiring the skills by learning experientially.…”

“…Clinician teachers' educational approaches and teaching strategies were diverse. 23,39,41 Informal or ad hoc teaching was frequently used to address student-directed learning objectives. Some taught with an observation-and-feedback approach, in which students were given autonomy and subsequently were evaluated on their performance.…”

“…(Harrison 2019) 22 "They [clinician teachers] also describe how insecure they feel, and how they feel the need to have more teaching tools." (Moore 2020) 41 Participant quotes "Have I learned enough? Feels like I could use at least another year of residency before teaching."…”

“…(Lin 2018) 29 "I think that we are all learning, I mean we all do the best we can, basically using our intuition, but really I don't have the skills yet." (Moore 2020) 41 Competence in clinical teaching is often presumed by institution. Researcher comments "Participants expressed frustrations with lack of incentives mainly on career path and recognition."…”