Specialists' learning from facilitating group peer telementoring: a qualitative study.

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Healthcare Delivery
• Interprofessional Learning

Background:

• Group peer telementoring facilitates synchronous, multi-directional learning between individuals with varying expertise.
• Project Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes (Project ECHO) is a prominent model of group peer telementoring for medical specialists and generalists.
• The bidirectional nature of telementoring suggests potential learning opportunities for facilitators as well as participants.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the learning experiences of medical specialists who facilitate and participate in Project ECHO.
• To identify what medical specialists learn from community-based medical generalists and other specialists within the telementoring framework.

Main Methods:

• Interviews were conducted with medical specialists who facilitated Project ECHO sessions.
• A thematic analysis was performed on 129 identified learning episodes from interview transcripts.
• The study focused on identifying the sources and content of specialists' learning.

Main Results:

• Specialists acquired knowledge about community-based healthcare, including novel treatments and patient needs.
• Participants broadened their understanding of patient care through an interprofessional lens and deepened their specialized knowledge.
• Learning about the learning process itself was a key outcome, highlighting power dynamics, the importance of creating learning spaces, and practicing humility.

Conclusions:

• Project ECHO's telementoring model exposed specialists to community-centric care realities, enhancing their patient care and learning knowledge.
• Specialists learned from generalists, peers within their discipline, and specialists from other fields.
• The 'all teach, all learn' approach fostered a safe environment for specialists to acknowledge knowledge gaps, promoting continuous professional development.