"I couldn't do this with opposition from my colleagues": A qualitative study of physicians' experiences as clinical tutors

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Clinical contact in the early curriculum and workplace learning with active tutorship are important parts of modern medical education. In a previously published study, we found that medical students' tutors experienced a heavier workload, less reasonable demands and less encouragement, than students. The aim of this interview study was to further illuminate physicians' experiences as clinical tutors.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Twelve tutors in the Early Professional Contact course were interviewed. In the explorative interviews, they were asked to reflect upon their experiences of working as tutors in this course. Systematic text condensation was used as the analysis method.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In the analysis, five main themes of physicians' experiences as clinical tutors in the medical education emerged: <it>(a) Pleasure and stimulation</it>. Informants appreciated tutorship and meeting both students and fellow tutors, <it>(b) Disappointment and stagnation</it>. Occasionally, tutors were frustrated and expressed negative feelings, <it>(c) Demands and duty</it>. Informants articulated an ambition to give students their best; a desire to provide better medical education but also a duty to meet demands of the course management, <it>(d) Impact of workplace relations</it>. Tutoring was made easier when the clinic's management provided active support and colleagues accepted students at the clinic, and <it>(e) Multitasking difficulties</it>. Combining several duties with those of a tutorship was often reported as difficult.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>It is important that tutors' tasks are given adequate time, support and preparation. Accordingly, it appears highly important to avoid multitasking and too heavy a workload among tutors in order to facilitate tutoring. A crucial factor is acceptance and active organizational support from the clinic's management. This implies that tutoring by workplace learning in medical education should play an integrated and accepted role in the healthcare system.</p

The practice of supervision for professional learning: the example of future forensic specialists

Supervision intended to support learning is of great interest in professional knowledge development. No single definition governs the implementation and enactment of supervision because of different conditions, intentions, and pedagogical approaches. Uncertainty exists at a time when knowledge and methods are undergoing constant development. This situation affects professions with high demands on precision and safety, and thus supervision and learning. The aim of this article is to explore the practice of supervision for learning professional knowledge of forensic specialists. The context is the Swedish National Laboratory of Forensic Science internal training program, which focuses on learning in daily work when the forensic trainee is assigned a supervisor. Ethnographic studies of supervisors and trainees in different forensic specialties were conducted. Practice theory is used to understand how supervision is planned and implemented to support professional development. Findings show that supervision by seasoned professional forensic specialists is significant for trainee learning. However, supervision is arranged, and performed differently, indicating various conditions for learning. Furthermore, the material set-ups of the professional practice prefigure the practice of supervision. Supervision is an area of expertise that needs to be cultivated and learned to maintain highly specialized professional knowledge in current time of change and uncertainty