How medical practitioners experience development over their careers: implications for professional growth and learning

This study investigated variation in medical practitioners’ ways of conceptualising their own development as doctors over their careers. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 30 experienced doctors (including GPs, physicians and surgeons) using phenomenographic research methods. Analysis focused on identifying participants’ awareness of different dimensions of potential development as a doctor, with variation in awareness of different dimensions leading to variation in overall conceptions of development as a doctor. Four qualitatively different conceptions of development were identified, varying in terms of what doctors thought development was (potential outcomes) and how they went about developing (potential approaches). Different developmental outcomes were dialectically entwined with different approaches to development. That is, what doctors understood development to be guided by both how they went about it, and what they were most likely to gain from a developmental activity. The greatest developmental potential arose from conceptions that viewed development as a complex, multi-dimensional phenomenon. Unfortunately, such complex understandings of development did not necessarily arise spontaneously with career experience. This makes it imperative to introduce targeted professional learning experiences that are designed to increase doctors’ awareness of different dimensions of development as early in their training and careers as possible.