Exploring nurses' role in guiding residents' workplace learning: A mixed‐method study

Abstract

Introduction: Understanding residents' workplace learning could be optimized by not only considering attending physicians' role but also the role of nurses. While previous studies described nurses' role during discrete activities (e.g. feedback), a more profound understanding of how nurses contribute to residents' learning remains warranted. Therefore, we used the educational concept of guidance and explored the extent to which residents' and nurses' perceptions align regarding nurses' guiding role and which reasons they provide for their perceptions.Methods: This mixed-method study was conducted at four Dutch university medical centres in 2021. We simultaneously collected quantitative and qualitative data from 103 residents and 401 nurses through a theory-informed questionnaire with a Likertscale and open-ended questions. We analyzed quantitative data to explore respondents' perceptions of nurses' guiding role by using ANOVA. The thematically analyzed qualitative open comments explored respondents' reasons for their perceptions. Results: Nurses indicated to provide significantly more support (p = .01) and guidance on learning from patient care (p < .01) than perceived by residents. Moreover, Previous presentations Preliminary results were presented at the Association of Medical Education in Europe (AMEE) (online).

Transitioning to residency: a qualitative study exploring residents' perspectives on strategies for adapting to residency

“…16-Our nding adds to the existing literature by showing that residents do not merely interact with professionals from their own profession, but also interact and learn within the broader health care team consisting of doctors from their own specialty as well as nurses and advanced practice practitioners. 24,57 Indeed, literature suggests that learning opportunities arise within interprofessional healthcare teams since team members can learn from each other's work contexts and activities. 58,59 The added value of this study is that it shows which strategies other health care professionals can use to in uence the behaviors of residents in transition, for example, welcoming residents and making them feel part of the resident group, approaching residents at their level of training and being an approachable colleague.…”

“…[20][21][22] Program directors, supervisors and nurses play a critical role in navigating residents through their socialization process by employing different strategies. [23][24][25] These strategies range from introducing residents to the departments' processes (nurses) 24 and organizing formal and informal orientation programs (supervisors) 25 to paying attention to the socialization processes and expectations which, in turn, ranges from tailoring approaches to address individual residents needs to expecting residents to adapt to the implicit norms of the workplace. 23 To our knowledge, research has not yet explored residents' perspectives on how social interactions with other healthcare professionals can help them adapt to residency.…”

Interprofessional scaffolding: Capitalising on interdependence during workplace learning

“…[8][9][10] They can help a medical trainee learn to successfully complete a task, compare how other professions accomplish the same task and identify opportunities for synergy. 10,11 Consider the example of a resident approaching a bedside nurse for help with placing an IV catheter. From this exchange, the resident may learn the skill of vessel cannulation, may be exposed to a different approach to vessel selection, may recognise the ways in which physician and nursing skills around IV placement complement each other or may have the opportunity to attempt IV placement with the nurse watching.…”

“…By interacting with other health professionals, medical trainees can learn professional competencies fundamental to becoming a physician, competencies central to others' professions and skills necessary for collaborative practice 8–10 . They can help a medical trainee learn to successfully complete a task, compare how other professions accomplish the same task and identify opportunities for synergy 10,11 . Consider the example of a resident approaching a bedside nurse for help with placing an IV catheter.…”

Cherry‐picking learning tasks in the orchard of postgraduate medical education ‐ a socio‐cultural perspective

“…2 Whether trainees actually recognise or capitalise on these opportunities is however another matter entirely. [3][4][5] Despite available support and guidance, 6 creating and identifying learning opportunities while addressing the demands of clinical practice is not self-evident. 3,7 Despite available support and guidance, creating and identifying learning opportunities while addressing the demands of clinical practice is not self-evident.…”