A qualitative interview study on the positive well-being of medical school faculty in their teaching role: job demands, job resources and role interaction.
BACKGROUND
Attention for the well-being of medical school faculty is not only important for the prevention of attrition and burnout, but may also boost performance in their tasks in medical education. Positive well-being can be conceptualized as work engagement and this is associated with increased performance. In this study we explore how demands and resources from different tasks affect work engagement specifically for education.


METHODS
Between June and September 2013, we conducted a multisite semi-structured interview study with a diverse group of medical school faculty and used an open-coding strategy within the Work Engagement Model on the transcribed interviews.


RESULTS
We interviewed 16 faculty members whose teaching experience ranged from 7 to 38 years and whose professional tasks ranged from being solely an educator to being a physician, researcher, educator and administrator simultaneously. All participants were clear on the perceived demands and resources, although similar aspects of the work environment could be perceived oppositely between participants. Overarching themes were perceptions related to the organization or department, often described as a general and long-term effect and perceptions directly related to a task, often described as a direct and short-term effect on well-being. Furthermore, the demands and resources as resultant of fulfilling multiple tasks were described clearly by participants.


CONCLUSIONS
The ambiguous nature of the work environment in terms of demands and resources requires an individualized approach to supporting work engagement. Furthermore, faculty members perceive many resources from fulfilling multiple tasks in relation to their tasks in education. Faculty developers and administrators alike could use these findings to apply the concept of work engagement to their daily support of faculty in medical education.
Center for Evidence-Based Education, Academic Medical Center-University of Amsterdam, Meibergdreef 15, Room J1A-138, 1105 AZ, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. j.w.vandenberg@amc.nl.
J W
JW
van den Berg
Center for Evidence-Based Education, Academic Medical Center-University of Amsterdam, Meibergdreef 15, Room J1A-138, 1105 AZ, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. c.verberg@amc.nl.
C P M
CP
Verberg
Center for Evidence-Based Education, Academic Medical Center-University of Amsterdam, Meibergdreef 15, Room J1A-138, 1105 AZ, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. j.j.berkhout@amc.nl.
J J
JJ
Berkhout
Center for Evidence-Based Education, Academic Medical Center-University of Amsterdam, Meibergdreef 15, Room J1A-138, 1105 AZ, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. m.j.lombarts@amc.nl.
M J M H
MJ
Lombarts
Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands. a.scherpbier@maastrichtuniversity.nl.
A J J A
AJ
Scherpbier
Center for Research and Innovation in Medical Education, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands. a.d.c.jaarsma@umcg.nl.
A D C
AD
Jaarsma
D002322:Career Mobility; D005178:Faculty / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic / Q000379:methods*; D007588:Job Satisfaction; D008297:Male; D010820:Physicians / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011364:Professional Practice / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012106:Research / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012577:Schools, Medical; D013663:Teaching / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D013997:Time Factors; D016526:Workload / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*