Supporting Pacific clinicians’ medical education practice change through faculty development: A qualitative case study

Abstract

Introduction: In the Pacific region, there is a growing need to support medical education and supervision. Following a faculty development initiative, we pondered a question: To what extent and how do Pacific clinicians change their educational practice in a low-resource setting? Current medical education literature advocates exploring educational change in different contexts. Therefore, we aimed to expand current understandings of educational change and provide recommendations for enhancing faculty development in low-resource settings by exploring if and how clinicians in Fiji translated knowledge learnt during faculty development to their educational practice. Methods: Utilising a qualitative case study approach, we recruited nine clinicians through purposeful sampling. Data collection occurred over 3 months through reflective journals, interviews, lesson plans and videos of teaching. All data were subjected to thematic analysis. Results: Six themes represented the Pacific clinicians’ educational journey: 1) perception of faculty development, 2) reflecting on and evolving educational philosophy, 3) adapting and changing practice, 4) clinicians’ perception of student responses to their teaching, 5) inhibitors to change and 6) enablers of change. Conclusions: We further conceptualised the themes into an educational change model. Our results, together with the international literature, guided key recommendations for medical education faculty development in low-resource settings. The key recommendations included considering cultural organisational influences, clinicians’ prior educational experiences and local enablers and barriers to changing educational practice when developing relevant faculty development programs. Furthermore, clinicians in low-resource settings, such as the Pacific, require support through mentorship, flexible learning, feedback, developing communities of practice and the promotion of reflective practice to facilitate sustainable educational change.