Towards a pedagogy for noticing: Piloting a novel intervention for health professions students.

Teaching students to 'notice' what is happening around them, to be more attuned to what is going on within themselves, and nurturing self-inquiry into one's practice is desirable yet difficult to achieve. We sought to teach the metacognitive skill of 'noticing' to pre-registration health professions students in the context of interprofessional collaborative practice (IPCP). A three-part curriculum was designed: an e-module focused on 'noticing' in IPCP; a team-based workplace learning observation and interprofessional debrief; and a written reflective assignment.

'Noticing' in health professions education: Time to pay attention?

Background: Health professions education teaches students to notice particular things, but has given little attention to teaching 'noticing' as a form of personal inquiry. The former is self-evidently important, as it develops a way of seeing and behaving that is uniquely relevant to each health profession. Despite this emphasis, health professionals may fail to notice 'warning signs' in patients, be unaware of their own biases or develop unrecognised habits that have moved away from accepted standards.