Learning Outcomes from an Academic Internal Medicine Morbidity and Mortality Conference

Morbidity and Mortality (M&M) conferences are widely utilized clinical teaching forums across the USA. Recent literature demonstrates heterogeneity in the educational objectives of M&M, with prior authors suggesting a variety of overarching purposes of the conference, including teaching quality improvement methods; promotion of patient safety; enhancement of clinical knowledge and skills; and reflection on humanistic aspects of medical practice. There is less information in the published literature regarding learning outcomes of M&M participants.

The goal of this study was to describe learning outcomes from the Internal Medicine Morbidity, Mortality, and Improvement conference at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.

Directed content analysis of learning outcomes statements.

Internal medicine physicians who requested Maintenance of Certification credit for one or more conference sessions during the 2017-2018 academic year.

Two independent reviewers analyzed 347 learning outcomes statements submitted by 49 conference participants. The reviewers used an iterative process to code content themes (the category of medical or healthcare delivery knowledge learned) and learning implementation domains (the context or manner in which learning would be applied), and to identify comments regarding the shared experience of practicing medicine.

Seventy-eight percent of comments described learning related to clinical knowledge and skills, and 28%, 34%, and 9% of comments described learning related to clinical reasoning skills, systems knowledge, and the need for systems change, respectively. Most conferences generated learning within a variety of themes and across multiple domains. Sixty-four percent of conferences included at least one reflection on the shared experience of practicing medicine.

Participants derived several types of learning from this Internal Medicine M&M conference. Although clinical knowledge and skills represent the most common type of learning, the conference also produces rich learning in other domains as well as reflections on the humility, challenges, and meaning of being a physician.