https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5948-9304
The research publications in Teaching and Learning in Medicine, Volume 35 (2023), cover several familiar topics in medical education, including clinical learning, physician and trainee well-being, compassionate and inclusive patient care, peer-assisted learning, faculty development, and assessment validity. However, among this volume’s publications the reader will also sense educators’ inquisitiveness regarding context and change. For instance, these articles explored the application of emerging machine learning technologies to residency match as well as the impact of shifting medical culture on physician moral distress. Other articles focused on context as a powerful influence on learning and teaching behavior as well as a factor in the capacity to make change itself. For the particular insight they offer on advancing medical education in context-sensitive and transformational ways, I selected from among these articles the following candidates for this year’s Editors’ Choice Award:
Machine Learning for the Prediction of Ranked Applicants and Matriculants to an Internal Medicine Residency Program
Christiaan A Rees and Hilary F Ryder (United States)
Becoming Agents of Change: Contextual Influences on Medical Educator Professionalization and Practice in a LMIC Context
Wendy CY Hu, Van Anh Thi Nguyen, Nga Thanh Nguyen, and Renée E Stalmeijer (Australia, Vietnam, the Netherlands)
The Norms and Corporatization of Medicine Influence Physician Moral Distress in the United States
Jimmy Beck, Carla N Falco, Kimberly L. O’Hara, Hannah K Bassett, Cameron L. Randall, Stephanie Cruz, Janice L. Hanson, Wendy Dean, and Kirsten Senturia (United States)
Connecting Biochemistry Knowledge to Patient Care in the Clinical workplace: Senior Medical Students’ Perceptions about Facilitators and Barriers
Tracy B. Fulton, Sally Collins, Marieke van der Schaaf, & Bridget C. O’Brien (United States)
‘Every Human Interaction Requires a Bit of Give and Take’: Medical Students’ Approaches to Pursuing Feedback in the Clinical Setting
Hannah T. McGinness, Patrina H. Y. Caldwell, Hasantha Gunasekera, & Karen M. Scott (Australia)
Psychological Predictors of Medical Students’ Involvement in Pro Bono
Joshua Braverman and Mark Snyder (United States)
This award, a recognition program now in its 10th cycle, highlights publications that exemplify TLM’s mission to “provide the theoretical foundations and practical analysis needed for effective educational decision making.” For medical educators seeking to fundamentally change their practice, publications of this nature are needed to empower understanding, growth, and action.
A diverse panel of seven TLM editorial board members evaluated the selected articles using the award’s selection criteria, which reflect TLM’s mission to feature innovative, practically inspired inquiry that advances scholarly conversation about teaching and learning and helps educators approach their practice in new ways. These criteria are:
Impact on Theory – The perceived degree to which the article helps build explanations, illuminate the role of context, and/or promote the asking of new questions. Outstanding articles according to this criterion go beyond providing new knowledge to promote new understanding.
Impact on Practice – The perceived degree to which the article enables educators to design or implement something with confidence that it will work in their setting. Outstanding articles according to this criterion go beyond providing insight on how to do something to fuel capacity to educate.
Innovativeness – Not all that is new is innovative. Outstanding articles according to this criterion push the boundary, going past incremental improvements or change to shifting paradigms and turning established ideas on their head.
Accessibility – Not all findings that are impactful or innovative are accessible to a wide audience. Outstanding articles according to this criterion present the material in a way that clearly indicates their utility to educational decision making and their importance to theoretical understanding.
The selection panelists who thoughtfully reviewed this year’s candidates were:
Anabelle Andon, PhD, Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, USA
Jeffrey J.H. Cheung, PhD, University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine, USA
Gareth Gingell, PhD, Medical Education, University of Texas, Austin, Dell Medical School, USA
Halah Ibrahim, MD, MEHP, Medicine, Khalifa University College of Medicine and Health Sciences, United Arab Emirates
Anneke Metz, PhD, Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, USA
Yoon Soo Park, PhD, Medical Education, University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine, USA
David Rogers, MD, MHPE, Surgery, University of Alabama Birmingham, USA
Francesca Williamson, PhD, Learning Health Sciences, University of Michigan Medical School, USA
Panelists independently rated each candidate article on the selection criteria using a scale of one to five, providing brief remarks justifying their ratings. Candidates were ranked within panelist based on the sum of their four criterion ratings, and then ranks were averaged across panelists. The best-ranking article was selected to receive the Editors’ Choice Award: recognition via this announcement and a prize of no less than $500 or no less than $100 per author awarded by The Terrill A. Mast TLM Foundation.
Based on the panel’s ratings, this year’s selection was:
Becoming Agents of Change: Contextual Influences on Medical Educator Professionalization and Practice in a LMIC Context
Wendy CY Hu, Van Anh Thi Nguyen, Nga Thanh Nguyen, and Renée E Stalmeijer (Australia, Vietnam, the Netherlands)
This qualitative interview study examines the experiences of eight Vietnamese medical educators in the 10 years following their completion of the Maastricht Masters in Health Professions Education program. Noting that educator professionalization has rarely been studied in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs), Hu et al. selected Vietnam as a case for exploring the professional trajectory of LMIC educators who have earned specialist qualifications from an international faculty development program. The authors focused on the contextual factors influencing these educators’ self-reported professional practice post-qualification, using the Theory of Practice Architectures as a conceptual lens to analyze the interview data. Hu et al.’s interviewees reported limited formal recognition and material support of their potential as educators upon reintegrating into Vietnamese medical education, where their preexisting roles as clinicians were more highly valued. The authors observed that interviewees’ fragile new educator identity and agentic repertoire could be overwhelmed by external, structural restraints (e.g., institutional leadership directives) or—as evidenced by signs of interviewees’ emergent agency—reinforced by their personal initiative to cultivate connections and change. The authors note how contextual factors such as those illuminated by Vietnamese educators necessitate the co-design and co-delivery of international faculty development programs if they are to achieve lasting impact in LMICs.
The panelists valued this article as “essential work” with “important implications for LMICs.” Specifically, they noted the “interesting application of the Theory of Practice Architecture to evaluate the outcomes of a faculty development program” with “important implications for designing professionalization activities for medical educators in light of meso and macro dynamics.”
The panelists praised the authors’ use of “an established methodology in a new and underexplored context,” in particular, “non-overrepresented countries in [the medical education] literature.” Panelists appreciated how this article “takes a deep dive into the context of medical education in Vietnam… and shows that without meaningful contextual change, [faculty development initiatives from high-income countries/institutions] have limited efficacy.” The panelists observed that this study “[c]alls attention to the absolute importance of understanding local cultural context.”
The panelists also found the article to be “[c]learly written with [an] accessible example and language,” making an argument that is “well supported by the evidence,” specifically “well-chosen quotes to exemplify and bring forth the story of these medical educators.” Calling this article “insightful,” the panelists appreciated exposure to “unique perspectives” and “a great example of a conceptually-grounded analysis that can be adapted to other research contexts.”
Hu et al.’s conceptually rich analysis offers practical insights into the professionalization of LMIC educators. These insights not only guide the designers of international faculty development programs in seeing the value of stakeholder inclusion; they also give voice to the experiences and strivings of medical educators who go largely unheard in medical education journals. Reading this article improved my own understanding of an important segment of our global medical education community, and it gave me a new appreciation for the educational and scholarly accomplishments of Vietnamese medical educators. In all these respects, “Becoming Agents of Change” is itself an agent of change. It exemplifies the kind work we prize at TLM, and in every way it deserves Editors’ Choice recognition. Please join me in enthusiastically congratulating Hu et al. for their important work.
I welcome you to examine “Becoming Agents of Change” more closely and to review all of the above-listed 2024 Editors’ Choice Award candidates. Our publisher, Taylor & Francis, has released these articles for free access through the end of the year. For easy reference, you may find them all in the Collection titled “2024 Editors’ Choice.”
Department of Medical Education, Southern Illinois University School of Medicine
Editor-in-Chief
[email protected]
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.