Supporting health professional educators in the workplace: A scoping review

Abstract

Purpose

Clinical educators frequently request additional support for educating pre-qualification health professions students despite having access to professional development programs to build education knowledge and skills. The breadth of ‘additional support’ options remains unclear. The aim of this review is to explore what is known about support options for health professional educators in the workplace through the lens of learning organisations.

Materials and methods

A scoping review was conducted searching Ovid Medline, CINAHL, ProQuest and PsycINFO electronic databases from 1 January 2005 up to 21 October 2020 for studies that identified support strategies for clinical educators of pre-qualification students in the workplace. Relevant data were charted, summarised thematically and synthesised with reference to support type and implementation level.

Results

Fifty relevant records related to medicine, nursing and allied health clinical education were included. Twelve support themes and five cross-cutting support categories were identified across four implementation levels of healthcare systems.

Conclusions

A diversity of support for clinical educators beyond professional development was identified. Future research combined with leadership and commitment from the healthcare and education sectors is needed to better understand the applicability, efficacy and resourcing of any newly integrated support to ensure it is sustainable and improves clinical educator capability.

Keywords:

• Clinical educator
• support
• healthcare
• pre-qualification students
• workplace

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Sharon Glass from Monash Health and Kristin Lo from Monash University for their contribution to developing the concept for this review and the first round of study selection.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Daniella Tassoni

Daniella Tassoni, BSc, MND, is Allied Health Clinical Education Lead and Clinical Specialist Dietitian at the Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne, Australia.

Fiona Kent

Fiona Kent, BPhysio, MHPE, PhD, is Associate Professor and Director of Collaborative Care and Work Integrated Learning, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.

Jacinta Simpson

Jacinta Simpson, BPhysio, MPT, GCHPE, is Allied Health Clinical Education Lead in the Learning and Teaching Directorate, Eastern Health, Melbourne, Australia.

Melanie K. Farlie

Melanie K. Farlie, BPhysio, PCGPhysio, GCHPE, PhD, is Lecturer and Unit Coordinator in the Physiotherapy Department, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.