A balancing act: The Supervisor of Training role in anaesthesia education

Abstract

In this qualitative study, we report how Supervisors of Training, educational supervisors overseeing the learning of anaesthesia trainees, experience their role in practice. Using purposive sampling, we interviewed Supervisors of Training from across Australia and New Zealand. The interviews began by asking ‘what do you see as your role as a Supervisor of Training?’ then explored the response in detail. Following the technique of thematic analysis, inductive analysis occurred as data were collected until we generated a thematic structure sufficient to address our research question after 19 interviews. In the first three of the four identified themes, Supervisors of Training perceived themselves as the fulcrum of the learning environment, ‘the something in between’. These three themes were: guiding and assessing trainees; identifying, supporting, and adjudicating trainee underperformance; and mediating trainees’ relationship with the hospital. Participants perceived themselves as a broker between trainees, their colleagues, their hospital, the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists and the community to varying degrees at different times. Negotiating these competing responsibilities required Supervisors of Training to manage multiple different relationships and entailed significant emotional work. Our fourth theme, scarcity, described the imbalance between these demands and the time and resources available. The complexity of the Supervisor of Training role and the tensions between these competing demands is underappreciated. Our findings would support strategies to mitigate the administrative load and share the decision-making burden of the role and to enhance the capability of Supervisors of Training by requiring formal training for the role.

Trust, power and learning in workplace‐based assessment: The trainee perspective

“…A further step would be granting trainees some control over the selection of performance information presented to inform progress decisions, which has been associated with the successful implementation of assessment for learning in an undergraduate setting 1,13 . We anticipate this last measure will be contentious in postgraduate contexts such as ours, where supervisors feel an obligation to their community to ensure the quality of graduating specialists 53 . However, these options we have presented are not prescriptions but serve to highlight the role assessment design decisions may have in how assessments are used in practice; we would encourage designers of assessment systems to consider these or other features tailored to their individual contexts, which may enhance trainee trust and hence encourage assessment for learning in WBA.…”

You are in charge now: exploration of educational relationships between anaesthetic trainees and their supervising specialists

“…However, the insider lacks the fresh perspective that an outsider may bring to a line of enquiry. 14 As such, EP and VB were included as ‘outsiders’. They are both emergency physicians with backgrounds in anthropology and medical education, respectively.…”

The role of feedback in supporting trainees who underperform in clinical environments

“…Supervisors have reported that they find it challenging to have feedback conversations with trainees when the observed activity is seen to be below-par, or if a series of observed events have been viewed to be sub-standard ( 36 ). Supervisors not only report the emotional burden they feel after engaging in these discussions ( 37 ), but observational studies of feedback show that supervisor language in these conversations takes on a distinctive tenor – what some have reported as “vanishing” ( 38 ), others as “mealy mouthed” ( 39 ), and others as “hesitant and apologetic.” Johnson and Molloy ( 40 ) describe how supervisors talk in circles in an attempt to diminish the negative emotional impact on learners.…”