Domains of professional fulfillment for pediatric hospital medicine: A concept mapping study

We know little about how pediatric hospital medicine (PHM) physicians conceptualize their professional fulfillment (PF). The objective of this study was to determine how PHM physicians conceptualize PF.

The objective of this study was to determine how PHM physicians conceptualize PF.

We performed a single-site group concept mapping (GCM) study to create a stakeholder-informed model of PHM PF. We followed established GCM steps. For brainstorming, PHM physicians responded to a prompt to generate ideas describing the concept of PHM PF. Next, PHM physicians sorted the ideas based on conceptual relatedness and ranked them on importance. Responses were analyzed to create point cluster maps where each idea represented one point, and point proximity illustrated how often ideas were sorted together. Using an iterative and consensus-driven approach, we selected a cluster map best representing the ideas. Mean rating scores for all the items in each cluster were calculated.

Sixteen PHM physicians identified 90 unique ideas related to PHM PF. The final cluster map described nine domains for PHM PF: (1) work personal-fit, (2) people-centered climate, (3) divisional cohesion and collaboration, (4) supportive and growth-oriented environment, (5) feeling valued and respected, (6) confidence, contribution, and credibility, (7) meaningful teaching and mentoring, (8) meaningful clinical work, and (9) structures to facilitate effective patient care. The domains with the highest and lowest importance ratings were divisional cohesion and collaboration and meaningful teaching and mentoring.

Domains of PF for PHM physicians extend beyond existing PF models, particularly the importance of teaching and mentoring.