Emergent is Authentic: A Sociomaterial Perspective on Simulation-Enhanced Interprofessional Education

ABSTRACT

This Conversations Starter article presents a selected research abstract from the 2017 Association of American Medical Colleges Western Region Group on Educational Affairs annual spring meeting. The abstract is paired with the integrative commentary of three experts who shared their thoughts stimulated by the study. The commentary explores the implications of sociomaterial perspectives for conceptualizing authenticity in the design and evaluation of simulation-enhanced interprofessional education.

Expert commentator biographies

Anna T. Cianciolo, Ph.D., is Associate Professor, Department of Medical Education, at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine and Editor of Teaching and Learning in Medicine. Her research focuses on understanding and improving the performance of individuals, teams, and groups as they seek to solve the complex problems of academic health care, including diagnosis, collaborative learning, and clinical teaching and supervision.

Madeleine Abrandt Dahlgren, Ph.D., is Professor in Medical Education at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences in Linköping, Sweden. Her research interests concern professional learning and pedagogical processes within the sociomaterial practices of health care and medical education, such as interprofessional learning, simulation-based medical education, and patient learning.

Stella Ng, Ph.D., is Director of Research, Centre for Faculty Development, and Arrell Family Chair in Health Professions Teaching at St. Michael's Hospital and University of Toronto. Stella's research explores what health professionals do in value-conflicted, uncertain, and unstable zones of practice. Informed by this research, Stella applies and tests transformative education approaches to support health professionals in being critically reflective practitioners and agents of change.

Kristina L. Stillsmoking Ph.D., is the Director of the University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine in Southern Texas Simulation Hospital. She is also Adjunct Clinical Faculty for the University of Texas–Arlington School of Nursing and teaches an online course, Simulation Application in Nursing, for their master's in Nursing Education Program. Her work has focused on simulation application in healthcare education, team-based learning, communication, and clinical skills for medical and nursing students, as well as several residency programs.