"There Is No Getting Perfect at It": Discussing Intellectual Humility with Academic General Internal Medicine Ward...

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Physician Well-being
• Healthcare Quality

Background:

• Physicians balance demonstrating competence with acknowledging limitations (intellectual humility/IH).
• IH is understudied in physician and trainee experiences despite its potential to improve diagnosis and patient relationships.
• This study explores academic hospitalists' IH experiences to guide trainees and clinicians.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore academic hospitalists' lived experiences with intellectual humility (IH).
• Focus on IH in the context of supervising medical students and residents.
• Identify themes to support IH engagement, mitigating negative emotions and repercussions.

Main Methods:

• Qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews with 12 academic hospitalists.
• Interviews explored experiences of anticipating, experiencing, or observing IH.
• Analysis involved independent coding, team discussions, and thematic analysis guided by existing IH frameworks.

Main Results:

• Hospitalists' experiences included themes beyond standard IH survey categories.
• Additional themes identified: mitigation of limitations, anxiety, career arc, modeling IH, and psychological safety.
• Lived experiences of IH differ from survey-based conceptualizations.

Conclusions:

• Physician experiences with IH reveal themes distinct from survey data.
• Health professions education (HPE) presents unique challenges and opportunities for IH.
• Integrating IH into competence models can enhance physician-trainee relationships, shared decision-making, and patient care.