Personal growth in medical faculty: a qualitative study

Background A physician's effectiveness depends on good communication, and c ognitive and technical skills used with. wisdom, compassion, and integrity. Attaining the last attributes requires growth in awareness and management of one's feelings, attitudes beliefs, and life experiences. Yet, little emp iric research has been done on physicians' personal growth. Objective To us e qualitative methods to understand personal growth in a selected group of medical faculty. Design Case study, using open-ended survey methods to elic it written descriptions of respondents' personal growth experiences. Settin g United States and Great Britain. Participants Facilitators, facilitators- in-training, and members of a personal growth interest group of the America n Academy on Physician and Patient, chosen because of their interest, knowl edge, and experience in the topic area and their accessibility. Measurement s Qualitative analysis of submitted stories included initially identifying and sorting themes, placing themes into categories, applying the categories to the database for verification, and verifying findings by independent re viewers. Results Of 64 subjects, 32 returned questionnaires containing 42 s tories. Respondents and nonrespondents were not significantly different in age, sex, or specialty. The analysis revealed 3 major processes that promot ed personal growth: powerful experiences, helping relationships, and intros pection. Usually personal growth stories began with a powerful experience o r a helping relationship (or both), proceeded to introspection, and ended i n a personal growth outcome. Personal growth outcomes included changes in v alues, goals, or direction; healthier behaviors; improved connectedness wit h others; improved sense of self; and increased productivity, energy, or cr eativity. Conclusions Powerful experiences, helping relationships, and intr ospection preceded important personal growth. These findings are consistent with theoretic and empiric adult learning literature and could have implic ations for medical education and practice. They need to be confirmed in oth er physician populations.