Dr. Peter Nugus
Title – Making work-based learning visible: Challenges and opportunities of ethnography in health professions education
Date: Wednesday, February 17, 2016
Time: 12:00pm to 1:30pm (Lunch will be served at DHCC)
Locations:
- DHCC 2267
- IRC 305
- CSB V2-220
- PHRM 3321*
*Please note the addition of a room in the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences. - MSB 210
- RJH CA 120
- KGH CAC 237
- NHSC 9-374
- Surrey Central City (Manning Room 4109)
Abstract
The “classroom” setting, both in universities and clinics, has dominated health professions education (HPE) research, with far less attention to spontaneous and unintended learning in clinical workplaces. This stems from the prevalence of an outdated definition of “Education” that privileges formal intentional instruction. However, the quality and safety of care relies on the successful transition between formal university education and independent practice of learners in the health professions. It is, therefore, crucial to understand how and with what effect these learners are socialized to undertake their everyday work at the clinical coalface.
Ethnography is a central methodology in the study of work-based learning. It allows focus on the hidden chains of meaning that individuals learn and without which participation in clinical work is impossible. This presentation reviews ethnographic research in HPE and suggests conditions for the optimal use of ethnography to advance HPE. Directions are discussed for clarifying and making use of the notion of organizational learning. The presentation explores the tension between a growing imperative for making work processes visible for the purposes of evaluation, teaching, control and standardization of practice, and the benefits some sociologists see in keeping specialized work invisible.
Biography
Dr. Peter Nugus (MAHons, MEd, PhD) is a sociologist and ethnographer who has conducted over 3,500 hours of ethnography in Canada, Australia, the US, the Netherlands, Argentina and Ecuador. His research and teaching focus on work-based and organizational learning, care coordination, and culture and identity in complex organizations. Dr. Nugus has published in leading journals such as the British Medical Journal and Social Science & Medicine and his research is funded by grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Social Science & Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Fonds de recherche du Québec–Santé. Dr. Nugus is Assistant Professor in the Centre for Medical Education and Department of Family Medicine at McGill University.
Accreditation:
As an organization accredited to sponsor continuing medical education for physicians by the Committee on Accreditation of Continuing Medical Education (CACME), the UBC Division of Continuing Professional Development designates this educational program as meeting the accreditation criteria of the College of Family Physicians of Canada for up to 1.5 Mainpro-M1 credits. This program has been reviewed and approved by UBC Division of Continuing Professional Development. Each physician should claim only those credits he/she actually spent in the activity.
