Sense Of Professional Development Research Articles

Experiences and concerns of health workers throughout the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK: A longitudinal qualitative interview study.

To identify the experiences and concerns of health workers (HWs), and how they changed, throughout the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK. Longitudinal, qualitative study with HWs involved in patient management or delivery of care related to COVID-19 in general practice, emergency departments and hospitals. Participants were identified through snowballing. Semi-structured telephone or video interviews were conducted between February 2020 and February 2021, audio-recorded, summarised, and transcribed. Data were analysed longitudinally using framework and thematic analysis. We conducted 105 interviews with 14 participants and identified three phases corresponding with shifts in HWs' experiences and concerns. (1) Emergency and mobilisation phase (late winter-spring 2020), with significant rapid shifts in responsibilities, required skills, and training, and challenges in patient care. (2) Consolidation and preparation phase (summer-autumn 2020), involving gradual return to usual care and responsibilities, sense of professional development and improvement in care, and focus on learning and preparing for future. (3) Exhaustion and survival phase (autumn 2020-winter 2021), entailing return of changes in responsibilities, focus on balancing COVID-19 and non-COVID care (until becoming overwhelmed with COVID-19 cases), and concerns about longer-term impacts of unceasing pressure on health services. Participants' perceptions of COVID-19 risk and patient/public attitudes changed throughout the year, and tiredness and weariness turned into exhaustion. Results showed a long-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on UK HWs' experiences and concerns related to changes in their roles, provision of care, and personal wellbeing. Despite mobilisation in the emergency phase, and trying to learn from this, HWs' experiences seemed to be similar or worse in the second wave partly due to many COVID-19 cases. The findings highlight the importance of supporting HWs and strengthening system-level resilience (e.g., with resources, processes) to enable them to respond to current and future demands and emergencies.

Peer facilitation and burnout: the READ-SG pilot.

Although there is much research about the prevalence of burnout among doctors and postgraduate doctor trainees, there is a paucity of evidence for effective preventive measures. First-year postgraduate doctor trainees (PGY1s) in Internal Medicine at our institution were given protected time to participate in peer-facilitated monthly small group discussions on topics regarding humanism and professional development. The authors prompted participants before each session and followed a novel reflect, empathise, analyse and discuss in small groups (READ-SG) format. During the pilot period the authors administered a survey, approved by the Institutional Review Board, asking participants to rank the perceived effect of the sessions on their professional development and various symptoms of burnout, including levels of empathy, stress and motivation. Out of 20 PGY1s available to attend each session over the 3-month pilot period, there were an average of 9.6 attendees per session, with a 100 per cent survey completion rate, yielding 29 surveys. A total of 21 survey responses (72.4%) reported speaking during the sessions, and 29 (100%) reported that the sessions were important to have. Average scores on a Likert scale from 1 to 5 (ranging from negative to positive, respectively) for the perceived effect of the sessions on each measure were: 4.59 for professional development; 4.38 for empathy; 4.00 for stress; and 4.28 for motivation. There is a paucity of evidence for effective preventive measures [forburnout] CONCLUSIONS: Peer-facilitated monthly small group discussions using the READ-SG method seem to have positive effects on participants' sense of professional development and symptoms of burnout among postgraduate doctor trainees.

Understanding the emotional reactions and exploring the professional development of college students based on reflections

It remains ambiguous how college students form perceptions of professional development by identifying their emotional reactions and reflecting on their experiences in a situated setting. College students undergo professional development by participating in field experiences and reflecting on their experiential learning. In addition, researchers have increasingly insisted that student emotional reactions to learning should be addressed in higher education. Therefore, this qualitative study explored the emotional reactions of six college juniors and how they made sense of professional development, analyzing the contents of their reflective papers in a field experience course. The findings indicated that 10 types of emotional reactions caused students to form perceptions regarding professional development. The three major themes of these perceptions were acquiring and applying professional knowledge, the importance of self-understanding, and discovering professional attitudes. The study elucidates how college student awareness of emotional reactions could facilitate reflecting on experiential learning.

Medical Students’ Attitudes about Team-Based Learning in a Pre-Clinical Curriculum

Background: Team-Based Learning is relatively new in medical education. Team-Based Learning was integrated into one medical school’s pre-clinical curriculum in 2002. Purpose: This study compared how medical students’ attitudes about the Team-Based Learning process changed between the first and second year of medical school.Method: 180 students responded to 19 statements regarding their attitudes about Team-Based Learning during their first and second year of medical school. Data were analyzed using a Mann-Whitney U test. Results: Significant changes in attitudes occurred in the areas of Professional Development, Satisfaction with Team Experience, and Satisfaction with Peer Evaluation but not in the areas of Team Impact on Quality of Learning and Team Impact on Clinical Reasoning Ability.Conclusion: This study demonstrates that students’ attitudes about working within teams, their sense of professional development, and comfort and satisfaction with peer evaluation change in a curriculum using Team-Based Learning.

Medical Students’ Attitudes about Team-Based Learning in a Pre-Clinical Curriculum

Background:Team-Based Learning is relatively new in medical education. Team-Based Learning was integrated into one medical school's pre-clinical curriculum in 2002. Purpose: This study compared how medical students’ attitudes about the Team-Based Learning process changed between the first and second year of medical school.Method:180 students responded to 19 statements regarding their attitudes about Team-Based Learning during their first and second year of medical school. Data were analyzed using a Mann-Whitney U test. Results: Significant changes in attitudes occurred in the areas of Professional Development, Satisfaction with Team Experience, and Satisfaction with Peer Evaluation but not in the areas of Team Impact on Quality of Learning and Team Impact on Clinical Reasoning Ability.Conclusion:This study demonstrates that students’ attitudes about working within teams, their sense of professional development, and comfort and satisfaction with peer evaluation change in a curriculum using Team-Based Learning.

Residents' work hours: a wake up call?

Reduction of resident work hours seems from many perspectives a sensible idea, which is long over due. Long hours in training, a phenomenon which is rooted in a tradition of arduous labor on the behalf of patients and a sense of professional development, appears to many observers as little more than a form of sophisticated hazing that is indeed quite dangerous. Simply put, no one would fly on a plane in which a pilot in training had been awake for 30 hours, especially if the only justification was that this is the way pilots had always been trained, or that this was the only way the pilot could learn to be a pilot. Indeed, it would appear that one of the easiest targets for the emerging safety movement must be the hours that a resident works. There is, however, a counter-argument. If we have residents working shorter hours and spending less time in the hospital, their patients will be covered by other doctors more frequently and there will be more …

Developing a Professional Identity through Problem-Based Learning

There are few reports in the literature on the use of problem-based learning (PBL) in teacher education. This is somewhat surprising given that it is a field of university study that espouses to its students the use of innovative and relevant pedagogies in the school context. Similarly, despite the widespread use of PBL in single courses, the literature in this area is also sparse. This paper provides a description and analysis of a problem-based pedagogy, used in a single course, as a way to better engage teacher education students in their final semester of study. It is concluded that the within-subject PBL structure was successful in motivating students to engage in a series of problems relevant to their professional trajectories. Lave and Wenger's (1991) concepts of legitimate peripheral participation in communities of practice are used to elaborate how PBL can enhance teacher education students' sense of professional development.