Reflections on a Recent Study of the Sources of Joy in Medical Educators
For this inaugural edition of Abby’s Article Alcove (I can’t resist alliteration…), I was excited to stumble across Lagina and colleagues’ article, “Sources of joy in medical educators as described by the PERMA model.” And it was a stumble: I was trying to find examples of shorter research articles to guide me–a template of sorts–as I started writing a manuscript (those of you who have met me so far are learning that brevity is not my strong suit, so I needed an example!) and this one popped up. It feels like a perfect fit for my first couple of months here in the Department of Medical Education because every single faculty member I have talked to so far has talked about how much joy they find in their work with Geisel learners.
This qualitative interview study of 15 faculty members in a Department of Internal Medicine (they don’t say it’s at the University of Michigan, but the author affiliations all being there are a pretty big hint!) echoes what our faculty have been telling me. These authors found that participants’ interactions with students brought them joy in all sorts of ways: experiencing the exciting “moment when something clicks” (p. 4); the value of longitudinal learner relationships; the meaningful work of training “the next generation of physicians” (p. 6); and sharing in learners’ growth and accomplishments. The authors maintain that exploring medical educators’ positive experiences like these can help us in “mechanizing joy to combat burnout” (p. 6).
While the phrasing “mechanizing joy” is admittedly a little odd (searching it on the internet gets you courses on website scraping and pictures of military tanks–I don’t recommend it), I love the idea of reflecting on the sources of joy in our professional lives and figuring out how we can, in a slightly better turn of phrase, “amplify” them (p. 7). For me, research is a source of joy in many ways, whether it’s trolling through the literature for just the right qualitative method (SOME EXAMPLES), reading through interview transcripts (I’m currently working on an interview study of women who are military physicians and have been humbled by their honesty, compassion, and strength), or having the privilege of coming together with a group of talented and engaged scholars to solve a problem (I’ve been fortunate enough to be drawn into a couple such groups at Geisel already!). And I love doing that research in medical education, where, ultimately, the goal is to figure out how to increase joy for everyone involved in the teaching and learning process (even, I’d argue, when we’re talking about complex things like competencies or measurement) as we all grow as professionals.
I’ll end with an aspiration and a query. The aspiration: that I’ll get to have some joyous research experiences together with many of you in the coming months and years as we tackle important teaching and learning challenges. The query: where do you find joy in your teaching, learning, and research?
These reflections are based on a recent article from Teaching and Learning in Medicine: Lagina M, Grum C, Sandhu G, Ruff AL. Sources of Joy In Medical Educators as Described by the PERMA Model. Teaching and Learning in Medicine. 2022 Oct 2:1-8.