Anaesthetists and Professional Excellence : Specialist and Trainee Anaesthetists’ Understanding of their Work as a Basis for Professional Development, a Qualitative Study

Why do some anaesthetists perform a better job than others? Why do some trainees grow faster in their professional role than others? These are important questions when the education of anaesthetists is so topical. Research in work pedagogy has shown that competence is related to the way professionals understand their work; the two first interview studies of this thesis are about understanding work. Study I shows that specialist anaesthetists understand work in four different ways, representing four aspects of work. Some of them have a comprehensive understanding, seeing three or all four aspects of work, whereas others have more restricted understandings. In Study II, trainees expressed similar ways of understanding work, some comprehensive, some more restricted. It is important that trainees develop competence in all aspects of work. Therefore, trainees need not only to develop competence by deepening their present understanding, but also by change of understanding, an important but difficult step in competence development. Reflection is important in professional training. The reflection process should encompass all aspects of work, to enable trainees to develop a broad competence. However, only anaesthetists with a comprehensive way of understanding work have the prerequisites for facilitating trainees’ reflection in all aspects of work. Study III, focussing on the learning environment, shows that two important principles of professional training are often violated for trainee anaesthetists: making use of the trainee’s curiosity and reducing trainees’ stress level. Trainees very much need support from well educated mentors. Teachers should not only facilitate trainees’ development of competence but also support young trainees to develop into anaesthetists who enjoy work. Study IV shows that some experienced anaesthetists still enjoy work very much after years of practice. Their advice about how to get to terms with work should be shared with young trainees