Abstract
IntroductionCurrent medical education models increasingly rely on longitudinal assessments to document learner progress over time. This longitudinal focus has re-kindled discussion regarding learner handover—where assessments are shared across supervisors, rotations, and educational phases, to support learner growth and ease transitions. The authors explored the opinions of, experiences with, and recommendations for successful implementation of learner handover among clinical supervisors.MethodsClinical supervisors from five postgraduate medical education programs at one institution completed an online questionnaire exploring their views regarding learner handover, specifically: potential benefits, risks, and suggestions for implementation. Survey items included open-ended and numerical responses. The authors used an inductive content analysis approach to analyze the open-ended questionnaire responses, and descriptive and correlational analyses for numerical data.ResultsSeventy-two participants completed the questionnaire. Their perspectives varied widely. Suggested benefits of learner handover included tailored learning, improved assessments, and enhanced patient safety. The main reported risk was the potential for learner handover to bias supervisors’ perceptions of learners, thereby affecting the validity of future assessments and influencing the learner’s educational opportunities and well-being. Participants’ suggestions for implementation focused on who should be involved, when and for whom it should occur, and the content that should be shared.DiscussionThe diverse opinions of, and recommendations for, learner handover highlight the necessity for handover to maximize learning potential while minimizing potential harms. Supervisors’ suggestions for handover implementation reveal tensions between assessment-of and for-learning.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1007/s40037-020-00601-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Current medical education models increasingly rely on longitudinal assessments to document learner progress over time
The developmental lens of Competency-based medical education (CBME) models and the accompanying assessment approaches have led to an increased focus on learner handover, or ‘forward-feeding’, where information about learners is shared across educational phases, supervisors, and/or clinical placements [4, 5]
Learner handover is a controversial topic in medical education [5, 7, 8, 14]
Summary
Current medical education models increasingly rely on longitudinal assessments to document learner progress over time. This longitudinal focus has re-kindled discussion regarding learner handover—where assessments are shared across supervisors, rotations, and educational phases, to support learner growth and ease transitions. The authors explored the opinions of, experiences with, and recommendations for successful implementation of learner handover among clinical supervisors. Competency-based medical education (CBME) models are gaining traction, in postgraduate medical education (PGME). The developmental lens of CBME models and the accompanying assessment approaches have led to an increased focus on learner handover, or ‘forward-feeding’, where information about learners is shared across educational phases, supervisors, and/or clinical placements [4, 5]. Some suggest that learner handover may be beneficial and lead to: a) improved learning through more tailored education and support [8,9,10,11,12], b) improvements in a supervisor’s ability to assess learners across competencies [2, 8], c) fewer informal discussions of learners (i.e., ‘hallway talk’) [9, 11], d) increased assessor accountability [11], and e) increased patient safety through the early identification of weak or problematic learners [8, 10,11,12]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
