NDLI: “It’s okay to not know …” a qualitative exploration of faculty approaches to working with uncertainty

Content Provider	Springer Nature : BioMed Central
Author	Moffett, Jenny Armitage-Chan, Elizabeth Hammond, Jennifer Kelly, Síle Pawlikowska, Teresa
Abstract	Background Whilst it is recognised that a capacity to manage uncertainty is an essential aspect of working as a healthcare professional, there is little clear guidance on how to facilitate student learning in this domain. A lack of faculty development opportunities also suggests that health professions’ educators may feel ill-equipped to assist students in developing effective approaches to uncertainty. The purpose of this study was to explore a faculty development intervention designed to help educators unpack students’ experiences of uncertainty, and identify attributes which may help students to manage uncertain situations. Methods This qualitative study was informed by a constructivist methodological approach, where participants were encouraged to share meaning around the nature of uncertainty in health professions’ education. Two 90-min faculty development sessions were held. These sessions invited participants to apply Han et al.’s taxonomy of uncertainty to role-played scenarios of student uncertainty within a focus group setting. Focus group data were collected, and examined using a two-stage, hybrid approach of deductive and inductive thematic analysis. Results Han et al.’s taxonomy helped participants to identify multiple sources and issues of uncertainty in the role played scenarios, thus unveiling the extent of uncertainties encountered by health professions’ learners. Data analysis revealed four themes overall: “Sources of uncertainty”, “Issues of uncertainty”, “Uncertainty attributes”, and “Learning environment.” Participants also contributed to a list of attributes which they considered helpful to undergraduate health professions’ students in managing uncertain situations. These included an awareness of the nature of uncertainty within healthcare practice, an ability to recognise uncertainty, and adopting attitudes of adaptability, positivity, and resilience. Conclusions This study highlights the successful use of Han et al.’s taxonomy of uncertainty within a faculty development setting. Our findings suggest that the taxonomy is a practical and versatile tool that health professions’ educators can use in shared reflections and conversations around uncertainty with students or colleagues.
Related Links	https://bmcmededuc.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12909-022-03180-6.pdf
Ending Page	16
Page Count	16
Starting Page	1
File Format	HTM / HTML
ISSN	14726920
DOI	10.1186/s12909-022-03180-6
Journal	BMC Medical Education
Issue Number	1
Volume Number	22
Language	English
Publisher	BioMed Central
Publisher Date	2022-03-01
Access Restriction	Open
Subject Keyword	Medical Education Theory of Medicine Bioethics Ambiguity Attributes Faculty development Taxonomy Uncertainty Undergraduate Theory of Medicine/Bioethics
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Education Medicine
Journal Impact Factor	2.7/2023
5-Year Journal Impact Factor	3.4/2023

Sl.	Authority	Responsibilities	Communication Details
1	Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education	Sanctioning Authority	https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives
2	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	Host Institute of the Project: The host institute of the project is responsible for providing infrastructure support and hosting the project	https://www.iitkgp.ac.in
3	National Digital Library of India Office, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	The administrative and infrastructural headquarters of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in
4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
5	Website/Portal (Helpdesk)	Queries regarding NDLI and its services	support@ndl.gov.in
6	Contents and Copyright Issues	Queries related to content curation and copyright issues	content@ndl.gov.in
7	National Digital Library of India Club (NDLI Club)	Queries related to NDLI Club formation, support, user awareness program, seminar/symposium, collaboration, social media, promotion, and outreach	clubsupport@ndl.gov.in
8	Digital Preservation Centre (DPC)	Assistance with digitizing and archiving copyright-free printed books	dpc@ndl.gov.in
9	IDR Setup or Support	Queries related to establishment and support of Institutional Digital Repository (IDR) and IDR workshops	idr@ndl.gov.in

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