In the past 5 years there has been a rapid rise in numbers of foreign-trained medical graduates returning to their countries to work as interns across the Western Pacific. These graduates were found to have a varied and different level of clinical knowledge and skill from that previously experienced in the region. This change in workforce profile led to an urgent need for upskilling clinicians as educators and supervisors. A team of clinical education facilitators were invited to design and deliver context-specific professional education workshops to address this need. These workshops were designed to equip clinical staff with education and supervision skills to optimise teaching and learning opportunities in clinical settings for these new graduates of foreign medical programs. Embracing a collaborative approach and addressing learning needs in local contexts has enabled the team to enhance medical education capacity in the Western Pacific region. This article presents the context of the need for and development of clinical education workshops for intern supervisors in the Western Pacific.
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.
Health literacy is essential for shared decision-making and improved health outcomes, and patients with inadequate health literacy often need additional support from health and social care professionals. Despite global calls for developing tertiary-level health literacy education, the extent of this in Australian health and social care professional degrees is unknown. This research explored students’ health literacy knowledge across five health and social care professional disciplines. A web-based questionnaire was disseminated to student health and social care professionals enrolled in one of two Australian universities. Questions explored students’ factual and conceptual health literacy knowledge, and responses were inductively themed and reported descriptively. Of the 90 students who participated, the depth of health literacy knowledge was low. Students frequently identified understanding as components of health literacy; however, most students did not identify health information access, appraisal and use. Additionally, students’ knowledge of helping patients with inadequate health literacy was limited. Adjusting patient education to their health literacy level and evaluating patient understanding was poorly understood. Without a solid understanding of fundamental health literacy principles, newly-graduated health and social care professionals will be poorly equipped to facilitate patients’ health literacy-related challenges in the community. Further exploration of health literacy education is urgently recommended to identify areas for improvement.
Interviews and focus groups are the mainstay of qualitative research, but may not capture fully the perspectives of participants when investigating complex social phenomena. Increasingly visual elicitation techniques, including Rich Pictures, are being utilised to further explore tacit perspectives. Two key questions around Rich Pictures were considered: ‘What are the affordances and constraints of using Rich Pictures to uncover tacit perspectives?’ and ‘Moving forward, how can we most effectively use Rich Pictures in future research?’ This case study answers these questions by reflecting on our experiences while conducting research into the complex social phenomena of leadership in health professions education. Through our reflections on using Rich Pictures, the research participants’ experience, and in-depth literature exploration of Rich Pictures, the affordances and constraints of this data collection tool are examined. Furthermore, the considerations needed when using Rich Pictures are expounded before providing a set of guiding recommendations for those considering using Rich Pictures in their qualitative research.
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