Learner Handover: Faculty use learner handoffs for their own benefit, a recent study finds. Learner handovers occur when the supervision of a student is passed from one faculty member to another. Researchers interviewed 23 faculty at two Canadian universities in 2018 and found that faculty formally viewed learner handoffs as a means to improving faculty “efficiency by focusing on teaching and feedback”, but faculty also informally viewed handoffs as serving “social or therapeutic purposes” to openly share frustrations, lessen insecurities around entrustment and assessment of learners, plus to “gossip”, and “vent”. The authors question who learner handovers are for — students or faculty. The answer is both. Students get “longitudinal assessment in rotation-based systems” and faculty get a chance to kvetch. — The Editorial Team with David A. Cohen, MD
Humphrey-Murto Susan MD, MEd; Lingard Lorelei PhD; Varpio Lara PhD; Watling Christopher John MD, PhD; Ginsburg Shiphra MD, MEd, PhD; Rauscher Scott; LaDonna Kori PhD, Learner Handover: Who Is It Really For?, Academic Medicine, November 2020
