Submission ID 78213
| Code | OC-2-2 |
|---|---|
| At the end of this workshop, participants will be able to: | |
| Category | Medical Education |
| Type | Oral |
| Will the presenter be a: | Other |
| Presenter Other | Education Investigator / Centre Researcher |
| Title | Covid-19 and the Shift to Virtual Care: A Critical Discourse Analysis on Professionalism in Health Professions Education |
| Background/Purpose | The Covid-19 pandemic accelerated the adoption of virtual technologies (video, telephone, email, etc.) in healthcare. The purpose of this study was to identify consequences of this shift as a way to seek potential educational affordances. |
| Methods | Data collected included public documents and 19 in-depth interviews with health care workers, administrators, and leaders representing four clinical sites across two academic hospitals. Analysis drew upon Michel Foucault's theory of Critical Discourse Analysis to identify shifts in power, boundaries, and practices. |
| Results | The adoption of virtual technologies has led to unexpected changes in patient-clinician interactions and professional identity. At the patient-clinician level, patients seemed to be less "present", to be multi-tasking in appointments, and as a result assigning less importance to virtual care appointments, which impacted communication practices and safety. At the professional identity level, there appeared to be a shift in power in the patient-clinician relationship that might affect the construction of professionalism, professional identity and what it meant to be a competent professional. Finally, virtual care work practices seemed to be removing a liminal space between meetings in which clinicians mentally transitioned between issues, contexts and roles. |
| Discussion | Early signs suggest a possible shift in what it means to be a professional, with implications for the patient-clinician relationship. This may require reconsideration of future curricular needs in Health Professions Education. |
| Keyword 1 | Virtual Care |
| Keyword 2 | Critical Discourse Analysis |
| Keyword 3 | Professionalism |
| Abstract content most relevant to: (check all that apply) | Continuing Professional Development (CPD) (faculty development, CME) |
| Abstract Track - First Choice | Virtual Care |
| Authors | Robert Paul David Rojas Mitchell Irving Cynthia Whitehead Tina Martimianakis Catherine Wang Mark Bayley Alejandro Berlin Peter Rossos Karen Leslie Roberto Mendoza-Londono Lauren Chad Ramanan Aiyadurai Robert Paul |
