262 - Lessons Learned from Peer Observations Across Different Career Stages

Publication Number: 262.5714

Shelby Lemke, University of Colorado School of Medicine, COLORADO SPRINGS, CO, United States; Peggy Guo, University of Colorado/Children's Hospital of Colorado, Colorado Springs, CO, United States; Jennifer Sedler, Physician, Denver, CO, United States; Kimberly O'Hara, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Denver, CO, United States

Background: Pediatric Hospital Medicine faculty at our hospital have received little professional development on their teaching skills. Peer observations have been shown to increase teaching effectiveness, though there is often hesitancy around providing upward feedback. We thus developed a Peer-to-Peer observation program aimed at improving hospitalist teaching behaviors at all career stages at our university-affiliated regional hospital.

Objective: To explore the impact of a Peer-to-Peer observation program on faculty teaching behaviors using social constructivism as a conceptual framework and to identify if career stage influenced one’s teaching goals

Design/Methods: We adapted our Peer-to-Peer model from our quaternary care hospital in 2023, which had implemented a similar observation program based on prior literature (Pierce et al., 2018). Nine PHM faculty participate in this department-funded program, where they observe hospitalist peers before and during family-centered rounds and record teaching behaviors that are similar or different from their own. The observing and observed faculty then debrief and share teaching goals or practices that each learned or plans to adopt moving forward, and these reflections are documented in an electronic database. Using basic interpretive qualitative methodology, 4 faculty coded the reflections iteratively until consensus of themes was obtained. Data were then analyzed by years in practice (early vs. mid vs. late career).

Results: Between February 2023-August 2024, 33 peer observations were documented, where 73% of observing faculty were early and mid-career (Table 1). Qualitative analysis revealed the following themes related to hospitalist teaching goals: 1) prepare learners for success on family-centered rounds (FCR), 2) optimize clinical teaching strategies, 3) provide more timely and effective feedback, 4) promote diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) principles (Table 2). In general, early and mid-career faculty focused more on improving learner rounding success and clinical teaching strategies, while some late career faculty reported incorporating DEI principles more into their teaching (Figure 1).

Conclusion(s): To our knowledge, this is the first application of this peer observation model in a regional academic pediatric setting. Results highlight how peers at different points in their career can learn from each other and their experiences as occurs in social constructivism. Additional research is needed to further elucidate the influence of career stage. Next steps include direct observations to assess if faculty are making their intended teaching behavior changes.

Table 1
Number of faculty observing their colleagues and number of faculty who were observed during Peer-to-Peer observations, categorized by career stage (early vs. mid vs. late-career) as defined by our university’s Office of Faculty Development

Table 2
Qualitative analysis of hospitalist observations and reflections regarding teaching goals or behaviors that they learned or planned to adopt after engaging in Peer-to-Peer observation, with illustrative quotes and associated codes of each theme

Figure 1
Themes of teaching behaviors that hospitalists learned or planned to adopt, categorized by career stage of the observing peer