Is Collecting Patient Feedback "a Futile Exercise" in the Context of Recertification?

OBJECTIVE: Patient feedback is considered integral to maintaining excellence, patient safety, and professional development. However, the collection of and reflection on patient feedback may pose unique challenges for psychiatrists. This research uniquely explores the value, relevance, and acceptability of patient feedback in the context of recertification. METHODS: The authors conducted statistical and inductive thematic analyses of psychiatrist responses (n = 1761) to a national census survey of all doctors (n = 26,171) licensed to practice in the UK. Activity theory was also used to develop a theoretical understanding of the issues identified. RESULTS: Psychiatrists rate patient feedback as more useful than some other specialties. However, despite asking a comparable number of patients, psychiatrists receive a significantly lower response rate than most other specialties. Inductive thematic analysis identified six key themes: (1) job role, setting, and environment; (2) reporting issues; (3) administrative barriers; (4) limitations of existing patient feedback tools; (5) attitudes towards patient feedback; and (6) suggested solutions. CONCLUSIONS: The value, relevance, and acceptability of patient feedback are undermined by systemic tensions between division of labor, community understanding, tool complexity, and restrictive rule application. This is not to suggest that patient feedback is "a futile exercise." Rather, existing feedback processes should be refined. In particular, the value and acceptability of patient feedback tools should be explored both from a patient and professional perspective. If issues identified remain unresolved, patient feedback is at risk of becoming a "futile exercise" that is denied the opportunity to enhance patient safety, quality of care, and professional development.

The International Landscape of Medical Licensing Examinations: A Typology Derived From a Systematic Review.

BACKGROUND: National licensing examinations (NLEs) are large-scale examinations usually taken by medical doctors close to the point of graduation from medical school. Where NLEs are used, success is usually required to obtain a license for full practice. Approaches to national licensing, and the evidence that supports their use, varies significantly across the globe. This paper aims to develop a typology of NLEs, based on candidacy, to explore the implications of different examination types for workforce planning. METHODS: A systematic review of the published literature and medical licensing body websites, an electronic survey of all medical licensing bodies in highly developed nations, and a survey of medical regulators. RESULTS: The evidence gleaned through this systematic review highlights four approaches to NLEs: where graduating medical students wishing to practice in their national jurisdiction must pass a national licensing exam before they are granted a license to practice; where all prospective doctors, whether from the national jurisdiction or international medical graduates, are required to pass a national licensing exam in order to practice within that jurisdiction; where international medical graduates are required to pass a licensing exam if their qualifications are not acknowledged to be comparable with those students from the national jurisdiction; and where there are no NLEs in operation. This typology facilitates comparison across systems and highlights the implications of different licensing systems for workforce planning. CONCLUSION: The issue of national licensing cannot be viewed in isolation from workforce planning; future research on the efficacy of national licensing systems to drive up standards should be integrated with research on the implications of such systems for the mobility of doctors to cross borders.

The implementation of medical revalidation: an assessment using normalisation process theory.

BACKGROUND: Medical revalidation is the process by which all licensed doctors are legally required to demonstrate that they are up to date and fit to practise in order to maintain their licence. Revalidation was introduced in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2012, constituting significant change in the regulation of doctors. The governing body, the General Medical Council (GMC), envisages that revalidation will improve patient care and safety. This potential however is, in part, dependent upon how successfully revalidation is embedded into routine practice. The aim of this study was to use Normalisation Process Theory (NPT) to explore issues contributing to or impeding the implementation of revalidation in practice. METHODS: We conducted seventy-one interviews with sixty UK policymakers and senior leaders at different points during the development and implementation of revalidation: in 2011 (n = 31), 2013 (n = 26) and 2015 (n = 14). We selected interviewees using purposeful sampling. NPT was used as a framework to enable systematic analysis across the interview sets. RESULTS: Initial lack of consensus over revalidation's purpose, and scepticism about its value, decreased over time as participants recognised the benefits it brought to their practice (coherence category of NPT). Though acceptance increased across time, revalidation was not seen as a legitimate part of their role by all doctors. Key individuals, notably the Responsible Officer (RO), were vital for the successful implementation of revalidation in organisations (cognitive participation category). The ease with which revalidation could be integrated into working practices varied greatly depending on the type of role a doctor held and the organisation they work for and the provision of resources was a significant variable in this (collective action category). Formal evaluation of revalidation in organisations was lacking but informal evaluation was taking place. Revalidation had not yet reached the stage where feedback was being used for improvement (reflexive monitoring category). CONCLUSIONS: Requiring all organisations to use the same revalidation model made revalidation easy to integrate into existing work for some but problematic for others. In order for revalidation to be fully embedded and successful, impeding factors, such as a lack of resources, need to be addressed.

The United Kingdom's experience with and future plans for revalidation.

Assuring fitness to practice for doctors internationally is increasingly complex. In the United Kingdom, the General Medical Council (GMC) has recently launched revalidation, which has been designed to bring all doctors into a governed environment. Since December 2012, all doctors who wish to practice are required to submit and reflect on supporting documentation against a framework of best practice, Good Medical Practice. These documents are brought together in an annual appraisal. Evidence of practice includes clinical governance activities such as significant events, complaints and audits, continuing professional development and feedback from colleagues and patients. Revalidation has been designed to support professionalism and identify early doctors in difficulty to support their remediation and so assure patient safety. The appraiser decides annually if the doctor has met the standard which is shared with the most senior doctor in the area, the responsible officer (RO). The RO's role is to make a recommendation for revalidation every 5 years for each doctor to the GMC. Revalidation is unique in that it is national, compulsory, involves all doctors regardless of position or training, and is linked to the potentially performance moderating process of appraisal. However, it has a long and troubled history that is shaped by high-profile medical scandals and delays from the profession, the GMC, and the government. Revalidation has been complicated further by rhetoric around patient care and driving up standards but at the same time identifying poor performance. The GMC have responded by commissioning a national evaluation which is currently under development.

Students' views on the impact of peer physical examination and palpation as a pedagogic tool for teaching and learning living human anatomy.

BACKGROUND: Modern medical education teaching and learning approaches now lay emphasis on students acquiring knowledge, skills and attitudes relevant to medical practice. AIMS: To explore students' perceived impacts of using hands-on approaches involving peer/life model physical examination and palpation in teaching and learning living human anatomy on their practice of physical examination of real patients. METHODS: This study used exploratory focus groups and a questionnaire survey of years 3-5 medical students. RESULTS: The focus group discussions revealed new insights into the positive impacts of the hands-on approaches on students' clinical skills and professional attitudes when dealing with patients. Students' exposure to the hands-on approaches helped them to feel comfortable with therapeutically touching unclothed patients' bodies and physically examining them in the clinical environment. At least 60% of the questionnaire survey respondents agreed with the focus group participants on this view. Over 75% also agreed that the hands-on experiences helped them develop good professional attitudes in their encounter with patients. CONCLUSIONS: This study highlights the perceived educational value of the hands-on approaches as a pedagogic tool with a positive impact on students' clinical skills and professional attitudes that helps in easing their transition into clinical practice.

The transition from medical student to junior doctor: today's experiences of Tomorrow's Doctors.

CONTEXT Medical education in the UK has recently undergone radical reform. Tomorrow's Doctors has prescribed undergraduate curriculum change and the Foundation Programme has overhauled postgraduate education. OBJECTIVES This study explored the experiences of junior doctors during their first year of clinical practice. In particular, the study sought to gain an understanding of how junior doctors experienced the transition from the role of student to that of practising doctor and how well their medical school education had prepared them for this. METHODS The study used qualitative methods comprising of semi-structured interviews and audio diary recordings with newly qualified doctors based at the Peninsula Foundation School in the UK. Purposive sampling was used and 31 of 186 newly qualified doctors self-selected from five hospital sites. All 31 participants were interviewed once and 17 were interviewed twice during the year. Ten of the participants also kept audio diaries. Interview and audio diary data were transcribed verbatim and thematically analysed with the aid of a qualitative data analysis software package. RESULTS The findings show that, despite recent curriculum reforms, most participants still found the transition stressful. Dealing with their newly gained responsibility, managing uncertainty, working in multi-professional teams, experiencing the sudden death of patients and feeling unsupported were important themes. However, the stress of transition was reduced by the level of clinical experience gained in the undergraduate years. CONCLUSIONS Medical schools need to ensure that students are provided with early exposure to clinical environments which allow for continuing 'meaningful' contact with patients and increasing opportunities to 'act up' to the role of junior doctor, even as students. Patient safety guidelines present a major challenge to achieving this, although with adequate supervision the two aims are not mutually exclusive. Further support and supervision should be made available to junior doctors in situations where they are dealing with the death of a patient and on surgical placements.

Availability of a virtual learning environment does not compensate for the lack of a physical facility.

A virtual learning environment (VLE), including access to on-line journals, was set up in support of a new medical curriculum delivered at two campuses. We evaluated student perceptions and use of the VLE including the library facilities using several qualitative and quantitative data methods and the results were triangulated. Paper copies of set texts are provided at each site; however, one site also has a traditional library for the training of professions allied to medicine. As the teaching was identical at each site, this gave us the opportunity for a study exploring the effect of having a physical library facility on the use of the VLE. Although ten-fold more loans were made from the library with the medical sources than from the other site, use of the VLE was very similar at both sites, suggesting that reduced access to hard copy books and journals was not compensated for by increased use of electronic library resources. As expected, training, ease of navigation and access to the VLE were very important to student satisfaction.