The journey from clinician to undergraduate medical educator involves four patterns of transformation

Abstract

ObjectivesTraditionally, teaching is part of a clinician’s job. Some practitioners recognize the teaching activity as rewarding. This study explored the ways clinical practitioners experience their journey from clinicians to medical teachers, analyzing their prior experiences of teaching and learning, conceptions of good teaching and learning, perceptions of learning environments, and finally, how those factors influence their approaches to teaching.MethodsData for phenomenographic analysis were collected through semi-structured interviews conducted in Spanish and administered to twelve clinical teachers in three medical schools in Colombia.ResultsThrough sequential phases of analysis, we constructed a conceptual diagram to identify critical concepts, themes, and categories that describe patterns that clinicians adopt during their journey to become medical teachers. We identified two themes and four patterns that describe the journey from practitioner to medical teacher: the identity theme, referring to “what” practitioners showed as the object of the journey and the changing process theme referring to “how” participants adopt changes during the journey. We describe four patterns that describe the journey that physicians adopt when exposed to the experience of clinical teaching.ConclusionIt is possible to identify two themes and to devise at least four patterns in ways of experiencing the journey to medical teacher. These patterns are not a fixed set of characteristics, but rather a spectrum of experiences. Taking into consideration the professional identity of clinical teachers and the path of their teaching process change, it might be possible to devise better strategies for teaching development activities.

Factors predicting identity as educators and openness to improve: an exploratory study

“…We might speculate that the SF model is an underdeveloped TF model, being similar to what is seen in the early teaching years of health care faculty in general, where new medical educators rely on their clinical expertise initially for their identity as a teacher . Browne and Webb suggest that teachers need to make a conscious transition to be a medical educator by committing to acquiring and maintaining expertise in medical education, which may be difficult if clinicians do not see themselves as teachers.…”

“…point out that universities also wrongly assume that being a senior clinician prepares someone for the academic world. If the SF model is an underdeveloped TF model, our results might suggest a possible continuum from clinician to medical educator, where, as expertise in medical education is gained, appreciation for teaching may become more relevant to identity and openness to improve, whereas connectedness may become less about teacher identity and more about the relationship within a community of teachers.…”

“…Browne and Webb suggest that teachers need to make a conscious transition to be a medical educator by committing to acquiring and maintaining expertise in medical education, which may be difficult if clinicians do not see themselves as teachers. Riveros‐Perez and Rodriques‐Diaz questioned whether clinicians are aware of this need for a conscious transition. In addition, Murray et al .…”

“…First, universities may need to recognise the challenges of the transition from clinician to medical educator and support SF through the transition . Second, SF who base their value as a teacher in their clinical skills may need to be made aware through education of their need for pedagogy about learning principles to increase their competence and credibility as a teacher . Third, SF could benefit from being able to access knowledge and skills relevant to their teaching through convenient FD, possibly progressing them towards becoming a medical educator .…”

“…Researchers have described the progression of becoming a medical educator (i.e. an educator involved with teaching the healthcare sciences) in new tenure‐track faculty members (TF) as being in phases that can take up to 1–3 years as clinicians identify the complexities of teaching and realise their clinical skills do not necessarily make them good teachers . In response to this challenge, programmes to enhance teaching quality and skills have been found to increase identity as a medical educator in TF .…”