Is your mind set? – how are intra- and interpersonal competences dealt with in medical education? A multi-professional qualitative study

BACKGROUND: Professional intrapersonal and interpersonal competences (IICs) form an important part of medical expertise but are given little attention during clinical training. In other professional fields such as psychotherapy, education and aviation, training in IICs is an integral part of education and practice. In medicine, IICs tend to actually decline during studies. To date it is unclear why IICs are given less attention in medicine, despite evidence for their importance in the treatment process. In view of this, the study examined the role of IICs in the treatment process, the current situation of IIC training in medicine and, most importantly, the reasons for the comparatively low focus on IICs in the clinical training of medical students. METHODS: Semi-structured interviews were carried out with 21 experts from a variety of medical specialties and non-medical professions that provide a training with a stronger focus on IIC development. The interviews were evaluated using grounded theory. RESULTS: The experts confirmed the idea that IICs are an equally important component in the treatment process, along with medical knowledge and technical skills. They also described large differences between the IICs possessed by physicians but noted a general developmental need. The key shortcoming was perceived to be a deep-seated defensiveness towards learning from mistakes and deficits e.g. through reflection and feedback. The interaction of different factors that seem to be reasons for this defensiveness and perpetuate it were identified: lack of support in dealing with insecurities in the face of responsibility; the notion of medicine as a science with the categories of right and wrong answers; and a range of pressures arising from the setting, such as hierarchical, economic and competition pressures. CONCLUSION: Our study showed, that the defensive attitude towards learning from mistakes and deficits especially in the field of IICs appears to be a subtle but powerful obstacle for implementing IICs in medical training, in contrast to other professional fields. This obstacle is sustained by various underlying barrier factors. We therefore propose that changes should be made within a cultural transformation targeting this defensive mindset and culture and its presumed reasons. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12909-019-1748-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.