Enhancing the Graduate Medical Education Clinical Learning Environment Through Community of Practice Forums

An optimal clinical learning environment (CLE) is associated with improved learning and patient care outcomes. Significant concerns exist about the state of the CLE in graduate medical education (GME). Research suggests that GME programming falls short in interpersonal aspects of training that promote trainee engagement and psychological safety. Furthermore, published educational interventions in the CLE lack adequate theoretical backing to inform a rational approach to interventions in the CLE that could address these important problems.The authors apply the 2002 work of Etienne Wenger on communities of practice (COP) to address these GME CLE concerns. To distinguish this COP intervention from earlier theoretical work on COPs, the authors refer to this management concept as "COP forums." COP forums favorably influence the GME CLE through effects that complement experiential learning in patient care. COP forums support trainee psychological safety, mentorship from near peers, and opportunities to innovate-effects that can serve as a counterbalance to the time pressures, hierarchy, and compliance culture often experienced in the clinical environment. Deliverables of COP forums, including practice innovation and trainee self-efficacy, can favorably impact organization-wide performance and engagement.This article describes the historical position of COP forums in the evolution of COP theory and outlines the basic structure and function of COP forums. It contrasts COP forums to other COP-related concepts to explain their relevance to the GME CLE. Examples of innovative GME COP forums illustrate the structure and function of these interventions. Finally, the authors call for more research on the impact of COP forums on the GME CLE. To avoid confusion, such scholarship must account for the ongoing evolution of the larger COP framework and target specific dimensions of the theory most pertinent to the medical education research question at hand.