Journal Club: Sherbino, J., Frank, J. R., & Snell, L. (2014). Defining the key roles and competencies of the clinician–educator of the 21st century: a national mixed-methods study. Academic Medicine, 89(5), 783-789.
Background
This paper looks at the challenges of the clinician educator in the medical profession, the challenge of being a clinician and an educator. Defining an educator and the roles they perform in the clinical and educational environments varies considerably in terms of the scope of abilities or competencies.
Aims
- Create a consensus definition of what is a clinician–educator.
- Understand the domains of competence of being a clinician–educator.
- Types of training and preparation is required for the clinician–educator.
Method
Two-phased mixed method study:
- Phase 1: focus groups using a grounded theory analysis.
- Phase 2: a survey of 1,130 deans, academic chairs, and residency program directors to validate the focus group results.
Results
Results from phase 1 focus groups:
- Being active in clinical practice,
- Applying education theory to education practice,
- Engaging in education scholarship.
Results from phase 2 survey:
- Designs assessment designs programs.
- Employs effective communication strategies.
- Learning theories and best practice for curriculum development, and conducts evaluations.
- Knowledge of education theory and application to education practice.
- Leadership in educational programs.
- Scholarship: “Contributes to the development, dissemination, and translation of health
professions education knowledge and practices.” - Uses effective teaching in teaching environments. Develops other faculty members.
Conclusion
Key roles of the clinician-educator: participates in clinical practice, applies theory to education practice, engages in education scholarship and consults on education issues. Identified the need for clinician-educator formal training programs.
Relevance For Nursing
What is interesting in this article is the continued mention of clinical competence or expertise in medical education. In nursing is the higher education setting seen as the source of educational knowledge, research and scholarship? But is higher education too far removed from the clinical environment to understand real world clinical challenges? Is there a different approach to engage both worlds for delivery of evidence based practice?
Resources
ICE Blog. (2014). Defining a Clinician Educator.
Sherbino, J., Frank, J. R., & Snell, L. (2014). Defining the key roles and competencies of the clinician–educator of the 21st century: a national mixed-methods study. Academic Medicine, 89(5), 783-789.
Interesting to follow your discussion. Have you found similar article from a nursing perspective? If not, why do you think that is?
I think you are on to something when it comes to the separation of education to the Universities, collages. But how so our supervisors benefit from that? They are in fact the ones doing a lot of the teaching…..
Thank you Teresa. Nursing articles are related to technology such as electronic hospital systems, telehealth and social media. Some nice work by RCN in the UK on the ‘e-nurse’ skills for nurse training. Dr Caleb Ferguson has also written on impact of technologies for nursing and patients. Most of the future planning and discussion appears to be medical focused, but hopefully nursing and allied health are involved for more of a interprofessional approach.