Educator as Diagnostician, Judge and Confidant: a positioning analysis of medical student support encounters

Medical schools, programs and educators are increasingly expected to address medical student stress and wellbeing, yet also ensure student competence and fitness to practice. Educators play a central role in supporting students when evaluating a student's concerns and in deciding whether support and/or sanction should be offered. It is not known how educators approach or resolve such potentially contradictory responses. We conducted an interview study of 21 medical educators from a range of professional backgrounds across 11 on-campus and clinical teaching sites. Using Positioning Theory to inform our thematic analysis, we found that participants adopted an overarching position of Diagnostician, and at times, two alternative positions, the Judge and the Confidant when supporting students. In their narratives of support encounters, individual students were positioned as Good Students or Troubling Students. For most, educator positions were fluid and responsive to the storylines enacted in encounters. Rigidly adopting Judge or Confidant positions could lead to “failure to fail” and violations of professional boundaries. Positioning Theory locates student support in a moral space and helps explain the consternation experienced by educators when support is not effective. Positioning analysis offers a language, and metaphors which are meaningful to educators, for framing discussion and reviews of support practices and progression decisions. Such insights could encourage reflective practice and guide further research to inform practice when students with troubling concerns and persistently borderline performances require support.