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Twin Palms Consulting & Publishing LLC

Professional Development

For Healthcare Professionals & Educators

Expert Guidance for Healthcare Professionals & Educators

Teaching in clinical spaces is challenging. Patient care and safety, of course, must be paramount. Clinical teaching looks different. Sometimes medical students will say they have spent an entire shift without anyone teaching them anything. Faculty physicians and residents feel confounded as they know they have done a great deal of teaching during those same shifts.
Over the past thirty years or so, feedback research has instructed us that unless educators alert learners that they are about to offer feedback, learners may fail to recognize they are receiving feedback. The same is true for teaching in unique spaces, such as in clinical settings. We need to remind ourselves that the environment is new to our learners and we might have to to tell them "this is teaching".
For nearly a decade, Dr. Ellinwood conducted "education consults", working directly and collaboratively with educators in many clinical specialties. The goal in working with clinician educators is develop strategies for teaching that:
  • Build a respectful rapport with learners
  • Contextualize teaching and learning within the duty to maintain patient safety
  • Describe what teaching looks like in your specialty
  • Engage learners in constructive feedback
  • Facilitate active learning and accountability
  • Use effective communication strategies.

Clinical Education Consult

Below is a description of consulting services for clinician educators and examples of educator training and curricular and resource development for clinician educators.
Needs Assessment
This needs assessment is an evidence-based portrait of the professional development needs of your program or organization, and is based upon surveys, focus groups, interviews, and/or observations.
Program Design
Assistance with program design for professional development includes recommendations for one-off or sustainable educator development programs to fit your program or department needs.
Evaulation & Feedback
Evaluation of teaching or other professional performance includes shadow observation and pre-and post-observation meetings, constructive feedback, and a written evaluation.

Funds of Knowledge & a Growth Mindset

Dr. Ellinwood has shadowed many physicians, fellows and residents as they were teaching in clinical settings. Her funds of knowledge perspective on professional development is inspired Dr. Luis C. Moll, retired UArizona Professor of Education and world renowned educator and researcher. This approach advises us to learn about the situations and conditions in which educators are teaching or professionals are working before offering advice on how to do their jobs more effectively. Understanding the unique challenges as well as the opportunities and tools that may be leveraged for teaching or working in unique spaces is particularly critical to providing effective guidance.
For Dr. Ellinwood running recognizance on the environment is an essential component of this approach. It is critical, for example, to identifying areas for professional development. Observation in real-time situations and genuine activities is crucial to engaging in effective professional development. In clinical contexts, Dr. Ellinwood observed physicians for four or more hours at a a time to gain a realistic sense of the challenges and affordances of clinical situations and specialties. She routinely engaged clinicians in constructive feedback and fostered reflection on teaching and professional practice.
Dr. Ellinwood is grateful to all the physicians and nurses who welcomed her into their world and offered great insight for engaging clinicians in educator and professional development.

Experience in Clinician Educator Development

Shadow Program for Clinician Educators
Conducted observations of clinicians during wide range of patient care events, including emergency medicine and surgery, to provide evaluation and feedback for enhancing communication skills and teaching practice in clinical settings.
Facilitator Training for Team Behaviors
Developed and conducted training for health sciences faculty to prepare them for facilitating an interprofessional Team Behaviors activity, including how to guide learners in assessing team behaviors during simulated ER trauma and simulating a debrief.
Facilitator Training for Patient Safety
Developed and conducted facilitator training for the interprofessional Patient Safety exercise, including interviewing patients and producing video shorts to promote reflection on constructive vs. disruptive behaviors and awareness of patient safety issues.
Produced Film Shorts on Communicating with Patients with Disabilities
Enhanced interprofessional education on patients with disabilities by producing film shorts emphasizing the importance of patient agency in communication, and creating video portraitures of community participants with disabilities in activities for novel integration in health sciences exercise.
Created Interprofessional Curriculum on Opioid Addiction Care
Developed new curriculum in consultation with Ted Tong, PharmD, of the UArizona College of Pharmacy, to highlight the importance of an interprofessional and patient-centered approach when addressing diverse patient populations affected by opioid addiction.
Enhanced Curriculum & Training for Interprofessional Pandemic Event
Enhanced curriculum, conducted facilitator training and provided guidance for integrating technology to promote active learning in interprofessional pandemic exercise.

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