Faculty's work engagement in patient care: impact on job crafting of the teacher tasks.

BACKGROUND: High levels of work engagement protect against burnout. This can be supported through the work environment and by faculty themselves when they try to improve their work environment. As a result, they can become more engaged and better performers. We studied the relationship between adaptations by physicians to improve their teaching work environment, known as job crafting, and their energy levels, or work engagement, in their work as care provider and teacher. Job crafting encompasses seeking social (i) and structural (ii) resources and challenges (iii) and avoiding hindrances (iv). METHODS: We established a cross-sectional questionnaire survey in a cohort of physicians participating in classroom and clinical teaching. Job crafting and work engagement were measured separately for physicians' clinical and teaching activities. We analyzed our data using structural equation modelling controlling for age, gender, perceived levels of autonomy and participation in decision making. RESULTS: 383 physicians were included. Physicians' work engagement for patient care was negatively associated with two job crafting behaviors in the teaching roles: seeking structural resources (classroom teaching: ß = - 0.220 [95% CI: -0.319 to - 0.129]; clinical teaching: ß = - 0.148 [95% CI: -0.255 to - 0.042]); seeking challenges (classroom teaching: ß = - 0.215 [95% CI: -0.317 to - 0.113]; clinical teaching:, ß = - 0.190 [95% CI: -0.319 to - 0.061]). Seeking social resources and avoiding hindrances were unaffected by physicians' work engagement for patient care. CONCLUSIONS: High engagement for teaching leads to job crafting in teaching. High engagement for patient care does not lead to job crafting in teaching.

Is being a medical educator a lonely business? The essence of social support.

CONTEXT: Social support helps prevent burnout and promotes its positive opposite, work engagement. With higher work engagement performance increases. The context-specific aspects of social support for medical educators, in their educator role, are unknown. To help facilitate social support our study describes the essential elements of social support and their meaning for medical educators. METHODS: We held interviews with medical educators purposefully sampled for diverse backgrounds and working circumstances and who spent a considerable amount of time on education. Both clinicians and basic scientists participated. The Pictor technique guided the interviews. Participants were invited to talk about the breadth of social support and elaborate on meaningful experiences. Template analysis was used for a descriptive phenomenological approach. RESULTS: Thirteen medical educators were interviewed. We identified four themes: (i) sources of support and their intent (e.g. a superior with the intent to stimulate personal growth); (ii) the materialisation of support (e.g. sought or offered); (iii) its manifestation (e.g. the act of providing protected time); and (iv) the overarching effect of social support, both in terms of practical effects and the meaning of support. We identified three sorts of meanings of social support for educators. Receiving support could lead to (i) feeling reassured and confident; (ii) feeling encouraged and determined and (iii) a sense of relatedness and acknowledgement of the educator role. CONCLUSION: Support for education comes from a wide range of sources because it is both sought and offered beyond the boundaries of the educational role. The resulting differences in support provided necessitate that educational leaders and policymakers consider the sources available to each educator, connecting educators where necessary. When facilitating or designing social support it is important that the need to feel reassured, encouraged or related is met.