Academic practice (TCD), with support from the National Forum Seminar Series, welcomes you to: Digital professionalism for all those who teach

Facilitator: Dr Cicely Roche, Academic Practice / School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences

Presenter: Dr Rachel Ellaway, Professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences & Director of the Office of Health and Medical Education Scholarship (OHMES), Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Canada.

Even though digital technologies have been a part of professional education and practice for several decades, we are still exploring and accommodating their many impacts and implications. The comprehensive shift to using digital platforms for education and healthcare provision in response to the COVID-19 emergency has made this a critical concern for all those involved in training professionals of any kind.

One area that has been substantially transformed has been how we think about, teach, and assess professionalism in a digitally-mediated world. This is articulated in the concept of ‘digital professionalism’, a key tenet of which is that “despite the many risks and fears surrounding their use, digital media are not an intrinsic threat to medical professionalism’.

Using a team-based learning approach, Dr Ellaway will guide participants through an exploration of the concepts of digital professionalism and their application in health professions education. Key issues such as professional proficiency, reputation, and responsibility will be covered through a series of worked examples. The principles of awareness, alignment, assessment, and accountability will be used to articulate an integrated approach to applying and ensuring digital professionalism is robustly considered in the training of tomorrow’s health professionals.

At the end of this session, participants will be able to:

1. Understand the key issues and debates in digital professionalism in health professional education.

2. Apply concepts of digital professionalism to their own teaching, learning, and scholarly activities.

Biography: Dr. Rachel Ellaway is Professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences, and Director of the Office of Health and Medical Education Scholarship (OHMES) at the Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary in Canada. She holds a PhD in Medical Education from the University of Edinburgh and she was the Assistant Dean for Curriculum and Planning at the Northern Ontario school of Medicine before moving to Calgary in 2015. An internationally acclaimed scholar, her work encompasses many aspects and debates in contemporary medical education including (but not limited to) the use of digital technologies. Rachel is also the creator and organizer of the AMEE Fringe, and Editor in Chief for the journal Advances in Health Sciences Education.