Navigating between two figured worlds: A constructivist grounded theory study on residents' workplace experiences with health care management tasks

Introduction Medical residents may be required to handle health care management (HCM) tasks alongside their clinical duties, despite not having received training to perform them. However, little research has been done on how medical residents acquire HCM skills at the workplace and how these experiences impact their learning. Methods We completed a qualitative research study using the Constructivist Grounded Theory approach inform by the Figured World theory. To gather data, we held focus groups and conducted semi‐structured interviews with 22 medical residents from various disciplines and learning levels at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana. We utilised iterative data collection and analysis, constant comparison methods and theoretical sampling to construct our findings. Results We constructed two different worlds to represent how residents acquire HCM skills: the non‐managing physician and the physician‐as‐manager. The former was characterised by a discourse that underplayed the role of the HCM tasks as part of residents' training, was full of negative interactions with the health care team and limited residents' agency. In the latter, residents collaborated and learned from health care team members, had supervisors who modelled how to incorporate HCM tasks into daily activities and expanded residents' agency. Residents developed their professional identity according to the world they were introduced into. Discussion Educational leaders must understand that the non‐managing physician figured world gives residents a feeling of uprooting and discomfort when carrying out this type of tasks. To transform this world into the physician‐as‐manager, it is necessary to reconfigure some workplace hierarchies, consolidate interprofessional collaborations and change the discourse perpetuated by influential role models. Supervisors must also strengthen their knowledge of HCM and improve its integration into clinical practice. Any effort to train residents on HCM competencies could be lost if the workplace underscores their value in patient care. Exploring how residents navigate their learning, the authors highlight how educational leaders need to restructure workplace hierarchies, strengthen interprofessional collaboration, and change discourse around health care management tasks.