The Experiences of Social Scientists in Medical Education Research: A Narrative Inquiry

Abstract

Abstract Although medical education research (MER) has been gaining recognition as an important area of research, the need for a social sciences perspective in such research is not always well understood. Available literature on the career progression of researchers in MER - with regards to factors like academic promotion and job satisfaction - have been largely limited to clinician or biomedical researchers. Thus, this narrative study aimed to explore and describe the experiences of social scientists developing careers within MER units housed in Canadian medical schools. It included semi-structured interviews with six faculty members of MER units in three Canadian medical departments. The data was then thematically analyzed, revealing the following themes: 1) challenges are systematic in nature but rewards tend to be interpersonal; 2) the development of MER units have helped improve social scientists’ experiences in MER; 3) interdisciplinary and interprofessional interactions act as both the greatest challenge and reward of a social scientist’s career in MER; 4) social scientists’ perceived experiences in MER are influenced by their perceived impact on institutional change; and 5) social scientists in MER retain and advocate for their identity as social scientists, but individual differences exist in the perceived gratification of advocacy work. The findings suggest the need for more interprofessional collaborations within and outside of MER to support systematic change in favour of an inclusive research environment, especially in departmental leadership and decision-making roles. Furthermore, there is a pressing need to implement standards within medical departments to recognize the contributions of social scientists to knowledge translation and mentorship.