Conceptualising and Teaching Biomedical Uncertainty to Medical Students: an Exploratory Qualitative Study

Journal article


Eva Lukšaitė, Rosemary A. Fricker, Robert K. McKinley and Lisa Dikomitis 2022. Conceptualising and Teaching Biomedical Uncertainty to Medical Students: an Exploratory Qualitative Study. Medical Science Educator. 32, pp. 371-378. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40670-021-01481-x
AuthorsEva Lukšaitė, Rosemary A. Fricker, Robert K. McKinley and Lisa Dikomitis
Abstract

Introduction
Certainty/uncertainty in medicine is a topic of popular debate. This study aims to understand how biomedical uncertainty is conceptualised by academic medical educators and how it is taught in a medical school in the UK.

Methods
This is an exploratory qualitative study grounded in ethnographic principles. This study is based on 10 observations of teaching sessions and seven semi-structured qualitative interviews with medical educators from various biomedical disciplines in a UK medical school. The data set was analysed via a thematic analysis.

Results
Four main themes were identified after analysis: (1) ubiquity of biomedical uncertainty, (2) constraints to teaching biomedical uncertainty, (3) the ‘medic filter’ and (4) fluid distinction: core versus additional knowledge. While medical educators had differing understandings of how biomedical uncertainty is articulated in their disciplines, its presence was ubiquitous. This ubiquity did not translate into teaching due to time constraints and assessment strategies. The ‘medic filter’ emerged as a strategy that educators employed to decide what to include in their teaching. They made distinctions between core and additional knowledge which were defined in varied ways across disciplines. Additional knowledge often encapsulated biomedical uncertainty.

Discussion
Even though the perspective that knowledge is socially constructed is not novel in medical education, it is neither universally valued nor universally applied. Moving beyond situativity theories and into broader debates in social sciences provides new opportunities to discuss the nature of scientific knowledge in medical education. We invite a move away from situated learning to situated knowledge.

KeywordsBiomedicine; Interviews; Meidcal curriculum; Situated knowledge; Qualitative research
Year2022
JournalMedical Science Educator
Journal citation32, pp. 371-378
PublisherSpringer
ISSN2156-8650
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1007/s40670-021-01481-x
Official URLhttps://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40670-021-01481-x
Publication dates
Online17 Jan 2022
Publication process dates
Accepted17 Jan 2021
Deposited22 May 2023
Publisher's version
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https://repository.canterbury.ac.uk/item/94q56/conceptualising-and-teaching-biomedical-uncertainty-to-medical-students-an-exploratory-qualitative-study

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