Addressing unprofessional behaviors in the clinical learning environment: lessons from a multi-year virtual, intergenerational, interdisciplinary workshop

ABSTRACT

Introduction

Optimizing the clinical learning environment (CLE) is a medical education priority nationwide.

Materials and Methods

We developed a virtual, one-hour workshop engaging students, housestaff and faculty in small-group discussions of five case scenarios adapted from reported unprofessional behaviors in the CLE, plus didactics regarding mistreatment, microaggressions and bystander interventions.

Results

Over two sessions (2021–2022), we engaged 340 students and 73 faculty/housestaff facilitators. Post-session surveys showed significant improvement in participants’ ability to recognize and respond to challenges in the CLE.

Discussion

Our innovative workshop, including scenarios derived from institutional reports of unprofessional behaviors, advanced participants’ knowledge and commitment to improve the CLE.

KEYWORDS:

• Clinical learning environment
• mistreatment
• professionalism
• microaggressions
• interdisciplinary

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Author contributions

All authors have contributed significantly to the reported work.

SR, AK, PH, AG, NI, NA contributed to the conception, study design, acquisition of data, analysis and interpretation.

JG, YR-K, DK contributed to the conception and execution of the work.

All authors contributed to the drafting and/or revision of the manuscript submission.

Ethics approval

The protocol was approved by the Baylor College of Medicine Institutional Review Board (H-48964).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/10872981.2024.2316491

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.