Exploring pregnant individuals' counseling needs regarding urgent imaging to rule out pulmonary embolism.

Background: Computed tomography pulmonary angiogram and lung scintigraphy with ventilation/perfusion scan are needed to diagnose pulmonary embolism (PE) in pregnancy. Their associated ionizing radiation doses are considered safe in pregnancy. A standardized patient information tool may improve patient counseling and reduce testing hesitancy. Objectives: In this context, we sought to address 1) what patients want to know before undergoing these tests and 2) how they want the information to be provided to them. Methods: We used a qualitative descriptive methodology. We recruited pregnant participants at the McGill University Health Center in Montreal, Canada. Structured interviews explored information needs about PE and diagnostic imaging for PE. The interview transcripts' themes were analyzed with a hybrid deductive and inductive approach. Results: Of 21 individuals approached, 20 consented to participate. Four had been previously investigated for PE. Participants requested information about the risks associated with PE and radiation and their effects on maternal and fetal health. They preferred for radiation doses to be presented in comparison with known radiation thresholds for fetal harm. They suggested that a written tool should be developed using an accessible language. Participants also indicated that the tool would be integrated into their decision-making process, emphasizing a lower risk tolerance for their fetus than for themselves. Conclusion: This single-center group of pregnant patients wished to be informed about the risks of PE and radiation associated with imaging. A written tool could help put information into context and facilitate decision making. These new insights may be used to inform counseling.

Learning Through Teaching: How Physicians Learn Medicine in Authentic Clinical Contexts.

PURPOSE: Little is known about the clinical knowledge and skills that are acquired by physicians through teaching, how such learning occurs, or the factors that influence this process. This study explored how physicians acquire clinical knowledge and skills through clinical teaching and examined the contextual elements that influence this learning. METHOD: Two theoretical frameworks informed this interpretive description study: situated learning and cognitive apprenticeship. From March to November 2021, semistructured interviews and follow-up discussions were conducted at McGill University with clinician-teachers who regularly supervise internal medicine residents. Participants were asked to describe how they learned clinical medicine through spontaneous clinical teaching, guided by questions relating to what they learned, memorable teaching moments, and factors influencing this learning. Data were analyzed iteratively, using both a deductive and inductive approach. RESULTS: Of the 87 contacted physicians, 45 responded, expressing interest (n = 22) or declining participation (n = 23), and 42 did not respond. All 22 clinicians who responded positively were interviewed, with 7 follow-up discussions. Results suggested that clinician-teachers encountered myriad opportunities to learn clinical medicine during spontaneous interactions with trainees. These interactions, embedded in authentic patient care, were influenced by clinician-teacher characteristics, trainee characteristics, and contextual affordances. Clinician-teachers were stimulated to learn by trainee presence and through discrete interactions with trainees. These stimuli often led to feelings of "performative pressure" to role model and teach effectively or "slowing down" in thinking, prompting clinician-teachers to engage in learning processes (e.g., reflection, collaboration, and articulation), which resulted in knowledge acquisition, reinforcement, and refinement. CONCLUSIONS: Learning through teaching is an underappreciated strategy that can help clinician-teachers improve their clinical knowledge and skills. This study uncovered some of the processes through which clinicians learn during spontaneous clinical teaching and the factors that modulate this learning.

Development of ownership of patient care during clerkship.

Background: Ownership of patient care is a concept that embodies a number of professionalism attributes and involves a feeling of strong commitment and responsibility towards patient care. Little is known about how the embodiment of this concept develops in the earliest stages of clinical training. The goal of this qualitative study is to explore the development of ownership of patient care in clerkship. Methods: Using qualitative descriptive methodology, we conducted twelve one-on-one in-depth semi-structured interviews with final-year medical students at one university. Each participant was asked to describe their understanding and beliefs with regards to ownership of patient care and discuss how they acquired these mental models during clerkship, with emphasis on enabling factors. Data were inductively analyzed using qualitative descriptive methodology and with professional identity formation as the sensitizing theoretical framework. Results: Ownership of patient care develops in students through a process of professional socialization that includes enabling factors such as role modelling, student self-assessment, learning environment, healthcare and curriculum structures, attitudes of and treatment by others, and growing competence. The resulting ownership of patient care is manifested as understanding patients' needs and values, engaging patients in their care, and maintaining a strong sense of accountability for patients' outcome. Conclusion: An understanding of how ownership of patient care develops in early medical training and the associated enabling factors can inform strategies aimed at optimizing this process, such as designing curricula with more opportunities for longitudinal patient contact and fostering a supportive learning environment with positive role modelling, clear attribution of responsibilities, and purposefully granted autonomy.

Contexte/objectif: Le sentiment de responsabilité face aux soins des patients est un concept qui englobe un certain nombre d'attributs liés au professionnalisme et suppose un fort sentiment d'engagement et de devoir quant aux soins aux patients. On sait peu de choses sur la concrétisation de ce concept dans les premières étapes de la formation clinique. Cette étude qualitative vise à explorer le développement du sentiment de responsabilité face aux soins des patients durant l'externat. Méthodes: À l'aide d'une méthodologie qualitative descriptive, nous avons mené douze entretiens individuels approfondis semi-structurés avec des étudiants en dernière année de médecine d'une université. Nous avons demandé aux participants de décrire leur compréhension et leurs croyances concernant le sentiment de responsabilité face aux soins des patients et d'expliquer la façon dont ces modèles mentaux leur ont été transmis pendant l'externat, avec une emphase sur les facteurs facilitateurs. Les données ont été analysées de manière inductive à l'aide d'une méthodologie descriptive qualitative prenant la formation de l'identité professionnelle comme cadre théorique sensibilisateur. Résultats: Le sentiment de responsabilité face aux soins des patients ' se développe chez les étudiants par le biais d'un processus de socialisation professionnelle qui comprend des facteurs facilitateurs comme les modèles de rôles, l'auto-évaluation chez l'étudiant, l'environnement d'apprentissage, les structures des soins de santé et du cursus, les attitudes et les interactions avec les autres, et le développement de la compétence. Le sentiment de responsabilité face aux soins des patients qui en résulte se manifeste par une compréhension des besoins et des valeurs des patients, par l'engagement du patient dans leurs soins et par le maintien d'un fort sentiment d'imputabilité par rapport à leurs résultats de santé (« outcomes ¼). Conclusion: Il est utile de comprendre le processus par lequel se développe le sentiment de responsabilité face aux soins des patients au début de la formation médicale et les facteurs qui facilitent cette appropriation pour élaborer des stratégies visant à l'optimiser. À titre d'exemple, on peut envisager la conception de cursus qui offrent plus d'occasions de contacts longitudinaux avec les patients et un environnement d'apprentissage favorable avec la présence d'un modèle de rôle positif, l'attribution de responsabilités clairement définies et l'octroi volontaire d'une autonomie grandissante aux externes.

Exploring the evolving concept of 'patient ownership' in the era of resident duty hour regulations-experience of residents and faculty in an internal medicine night float system.

BACKGROUND: Despite the use of 'patient ownership' as an embodiment of professionalism and increasing concerns over its loss among trainees, how its development in residents has been affected by duty hour regulations has not been well described. In this qualitative study, we aim to outline the key features of patient ownership in internal medicine, factors enabling its development, and how these have been affected by the adoption of a night float system to comply with duty hour regulations. METHODS: In this qualitative descriptive study, we interviewed 18 residents and 12 faculty internists at one university centre and conducted a thematic analysis of the data focused on the concept of patient ownership. RESULTS: We identified three key features of patient ownership: personal concern for patients, professional capacity for autonomous decision-making, and knowledge of patients' issues. Within the context of a night float system, factors that facilitate development of patient ownership include improved fitness for duty and more consistent interactions with patients/families resulting from working the same shift over consecutive days (or nights). Conversely, the increase in patient handovers, if done poorly, is a potential threat to patient ownership development. Trainees often struggle to develop ownership when autonomy is not supported with supervision and when role-modelling by faculty is lacking. DISCUSSION: These features of patient ownership can be used to frame discussions when coaching trainees. Residency programs should be mindful of the downstream effects of shift-based scheduling. We propose strategies to optimize factors that enable trainee development of patient ownership.

Use of a Night Float System to Comply With Resident Duty Hours Restrictions: Perceptions of Workplace Changes and Their Effects on Professionalism.

PURPOSE: Although some evidence suggests that resident duty hours reforms can lead to shift-worker mentality and loss of patient ownership, other evidence links long hours and fatigue to poor work performance and loss of empathy, suggesting the restrictions could positively affect professionalism. The authors explored perceived impacts of a 16-hour duty restriction, achieved using a night float (NF) system, on the workplace and professionalism. METHOD: In 2013, the authors conducted semistructured interviews with 18 residents, 9 staff physicians, and 3 residency program directors in the McGill University core internal medicine residency program regarding their perceptions of the program's 12-hour shift-based NF system. Interviews were transcribed and coded for common themes. The authors used a descriptive qualitative methodology. RESULTS: Participants viewed implementation of the NF system as leading to decreased physical and mental exhaustion, more consistent interaction with patients, and more stable team structure within shifts compared with the previous 24-hour call system. These workplace changes were felt to improve teamwork and patient ownership within shifts, quality of work performed, and empathy. Across shifts, however, more frequent sign-overs, stricter application of shift time boundaries, and loose integration between daytime and NF teams were perceived as leading to emergence of shift-worker mentality around sign-over. Perceptions of optimal patient ownership changed from the traditional single-physician-24/7 model to team-based shared ownership. CONCLUSIONS: Duty hours restrictions, as exemplified by an NF system, have both positive and negative impacts on professionalism. Interventions and training toward effective team-based care are needed to curb emergence of shift-worker mentality.

The Perceived Effect of Duty Hour Restrictions on Learning Opportunities in the Intensive Care Unit.

BACKGROUND: Many countries have reduced resident duty hours in an effort to promote patient safety and enhance resident quality of life. There are concerns that reducing duty hours may impact residents' learning opportunities. OBJECTIVES: We (1) evaluated residents' perceptions of their current learning opportunities in a context of reduced duty hours, and (2) explored the perceived change in resident learning opportunities after call length was reduced from 24 continuous hours to 16 hours. METHODS: We conducted an anonymous, cross-sectional online survey of 240 first-, second-, and third-year residents rotating through 3 McGill University-affiliated intensive care units (ICUs) in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, between July 1, 2012, and June 30, 2013. The survey investigated residents' perceptions of learning opportunities in both the 24-hour and 16-hour systems. RESULTS: Of 240 residents, 168 (70%) completed the survey. Of these residents, 63 (38%) had been exposed to both 24-hour and 16-hour call schedules. The majority of respondents (83%) reported that didactic teaching sessions held by ICU staff physicians were useful. However, of the residents trained in both approaches to overnight call, 44% reported a reduction in learner attendance at didactic teaching sessions, 48% reported a reduction in attendance at midday hospital rounds, and 40% reported a perceived reduction in self-directed reading after the implementation of the new call schedule. CONCLUSIONS: A substantial proportion of residents perceived a reduction in the attendance of instructor-directed and self-directed reading after the implementation of a 16-hour call schedule in the ICU.

Scheduling in the context of resident duty hour reform.

Fuelled by concerns about resident health and patient safety, there is a general trend in many jurisdictions toward limiting the maximum duration of consecutive work to between 14 and 16 hours. The goal of this article is to assist institutions and residency programs to make a smooth transition from the previous 24- to 36-hour call system to this new model. We will first give an overview of the main types of coverage systems and their relative merits when considering various aspects of patient care and resident pedagogy. We will then suggest a practical step-by-step approach to designing, implementing, and monitoring a scheduling system centred on clinical and educational needs in the context of resident duty hour reform. The importance of understanding the impetus for change and of assessing the need for overall workflow restructuring will be explored throughout this process. Finally, as a practical example, we will describe a large, university-based teaching hospital network's transition from a traditional call-based system to a novel schedule that incorporates the new 16-hour duty limit.