Environmental influences on roles and responsibilities: Course supervisors’ perspectives

Abstract

As teachers and administrators of undergraduate courses in medical education, course supervisors are influential agents in the development of the learning environment. Their perceptions of academic and organizational events affect how they carry out their tasks and interpret roles and responsibilities.

This study was undertaken to identify the characteristics of a medical school learning environment as perceived by course supervisors and to reveal how these characteristics influence educational organization and development. An ethnographic research approach was employed. Tape‐recorded interviews with course supervisors provided descriptive data which, when analyzed, revealed four major themes that were commonly addressed and perceived as influencing their roles and responsibilities. These themes were (a) the faculty of medicine mission, (b) curriculum goals and course supervisors, (c) authority and responsibility, and (d) environmental climate.

On each theme, in general, course supervisors viewed the environment as a conforming one that did not encourage interactive decision‐making and inhibited the development of trust among people. Most curricular innovations were developed within departments.