Growing medical educators in the Pacific. Are workshops enough to change educational practice?

Background
A growing need to support medical education in the Pacific resulted in a series of five-day medical education workshops. We pondered: How do Pacific clinicians translate knowledge and skills gained to their educational practice and what support do they need in their remote low-resource settings? Current medical education literature also advocates for exploration of the translation into practice phenomenon in different educational contexts to further contemporary understandings. Therefore, a social constructivist based, qualitative case study was conducted exploring this phenomenon to inform faculty development in remote low-resource settings.
Summary of Work
An explanatory (how change occurred) and instrumental (informing best practice) qualitative case study explored each clinicians’ unique learning journey. Nine clinicians were recruited through purposive sampling. We collected data through reflective journals, individual interviews, review of written lesson plans and video recordings of teaching sessions over four months. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and all data sets were analysed using Braun and Clarke’s thematic analysis. Each case was analysed individually before searching for common themes.
Summary of Results
Six shared themes were identified: 1) Perception of the workshop; 2) Evolving teaching philosophy; 3) Changing practice; 4) Teachers’ perception of responses from the students; 5) Inhibitors to change; and 6) Enablers of change.
Discussion and Conclusions
Our study results were supported by the international literature on faculty development, including the importance of considering clinicians’ prior educational experiences, cultural organisational influences, communities of practice, and enablers and barriers to changing educational practice when designing faculty development. However, clinicians in remote low-resource settings, like the Pacific, also require contextual support through the provision of relevant flexible learning, culturally sensitive feedback, and promoting reflective practice to facilitate sustainable educational change.
Workshops can initiate clinicians’ educational journey but ongoing support of faculty development is required in the Pacific. Therefore, we recommend that established medical education units assist through sustained collaboration to develop culturally and contextually situated flexible education programs that promote reflection and communities of practice, whilst also providing culturally acceptable and valuable feedback.
Take Home Messages
Workshops begin the educational change journey, but the question still remains: How can we better collaborate to support medical education development in remote low-resource settings?