Making meaning from sensory cues: a qualitative investigation of postgraduate learning in the operating room.
OBJECTIVE
The authors aimed to map and explicate what surgeons perceive they learn in the operating room.


METHODS
The researchers used a grounded theory method in which data were iteratively collected through semistructured one-to-one interviews in 2010 and 2011 at four participating hospital sites. A four-person data analysis team from differing academic backgrounds qualitatively analyzed the content of the transcripts employing an immersion/crystallization approach.


RESULTS
Participants were 22 UK surgeons, some of whom were in training at the time of the study and some of whom were attending surgeons. Major themes of learning in the operating room were perceived to be factual knowledge, motor skills, sensory semiosis, adaptive strategies, team working and management, and attitudes and behaviors. The analysis team classified 277 data points (short paragraphs or groups of sentences conveying meaning) under these major themes and subthemes. A key component of learning in the operating room that emerged from these data was sensory semiosis, defined as learning to make sense of visual and haptic cues.


CONCLUSIONS
Although the authors found that learning in the operating room occurred across a wide range of domains, sensory semiosis was found to be an important theme that has not previously been fully acknowledged or discussed in the surgical literature. The discussion draws on the wider literature from the social sciences and cognitive psychology literature to examine how professionals learn to make meaning from "signs" making parallels with other medical specialties.
A.C. Cope was clinical research fellow, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom, and senior surgical resident, Oxford Deanery, Oxford, United Kingdom, at the time this research was conducted. S. Mavroveli is a postdoctoral educational research psychologist, Imperial College London in association with the London Deanery, London, United Kingdom. J. Bezemer is senior research fellow, Institute of Education, London, United Kingdom. G.B. Hanna is professor of surgical sciences and head, Department of Surgery, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom. R. Kneebone is professor of surgical education, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom.
Alexandra C
AC
Cope
Stella
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Mavroveli
Jeff
J
Bezemer
George B
GB
Hanna
Roger
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Kneebone
D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002983:Clinical Competence; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D013502:General Surgery / Q000193:education; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D019359:Knowledge; D007858:Learning; D008131:London; D008297:Male; D009048:Motor Skills; D009873:Operating Rooms; D036301:Qualitative Research