Workshop H

Fixing the Problem, Not the Blame: Remediating Professionalism Issues in Trainees

Hallie Rozansky MD, and Thomas Ostrander, MD, MPH

General Internal Medicine and, Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine

Zoom (link TBD)

Of all the clinical competencies, issues of professionalism are among the most challenging to remediate. Patterns ofsuch behavior often occur due to multiple factors, each individually complex: burnout, mental health, clinical inexperience, issuesof confidence, communication style, personality characteristics, and many others. While ample literature exists regarding theprevalence of professionalism issues in trainees, there is little clearly-defined guidance to support successful remediation andcoaching strategies. This is particularly exacerbated among trainees without insight into their deficits. This workshop will addressthis important and difficult topic and offer techniques for developing coaching strategies for learners with professionalism issues.

We will provide a framework to identify contributing factors to the trainee’s behavior. We will then review techniques and languageto address professionalism concerns with the trainee. In breakout sessions, we will work through cases with two types of learners:those who have insight into their behaviors and those who do not. We will then offer examples of how our programs approachcoaching of professionalism through initial observation, discussion with trainees, our Clinical Competency Committee process,formal structured interventions, and measurement of success. We will highlight the importance of approaching from a supportive,destigmatizing angle, rather than a punitive one.

Target audience:

Medical educators at the UME and GME levels, particularly those who do specific / directed coaching orremediation with learners, including members of the CCC.

Learning Objectives:

By the end of the Workshop, participants will be able to:

1) Build a differential diagnosis for contributing factors that result in patterns of unprofessional behavior
2) Establish and review frameworks for diagnosing and coaching learners with professionalism deficits, including both those withand without insight into their deficits.
3) Review common pitfalls in the process.

Session Outline:

Case-based 60-minute session that introduces a 5-step approach to coaching learners with professionalism challenges. Audienceparticipation throughout with think/pair/shares (5 minutes), word cloud for opening statements for challenging conversations (5minutes), and audience discussion (1-2 minutes at several intervals throughout).

This workshop was previously presented at Alliance of Internal Medicine on April 19, 2025