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Undergraduate education often leaves future healthcare professionals insufficiently prepared for the complex and unpredictable workplace. Competency-based medical education (CBME) is widely utilised in health professions' education, but a growing literature highlights its limitations. Capability is a complex concept which builds on competence, while embedding the integration and adaptation of knowledge, skills and personal qualities. While capability can prepare learners for uncertainty and complexity, the concept has been slow to progress within health professions' education. We introduced the concept of capability to over 110 international health profession educators through six conference workshops, using a visual model to facilitate understanding. Participants' post-workshop qualitative feedback was collated and thematically analysed. One hundred and thirty-three free text comments were received and four main themes identified: conceptualising capability, capability as curriculum goal, educating for capability, challenges to implementation. The need for capability resonated with participants, although most were unfamiliar with the concept prior to the workshop. The workshop enabled participants to recognise the limitations of CBME's 'tick box' culture when preparing learners to address complexity. The model helped educators grasp the concept of capability and its potential value in health professions' education. Participants were then able to identify challenges and suggest approaches for implementing capability in practice. Educating for capability is fundamental for preparing students successfully for the 'real world' of professional practice. Most participants agreed it should be the end goal of healthcare education curricula. Healthcare educators are likely, however, to need support to embrace this paradigm shift. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Touch is an integral part of human life. Consequently, touching and being touched are also fundamental to healthcare practice. Despite a significant literature on touch, it is rarely conceptualized or discussed in terms of the student journey from layperson to practitioner. We chose to explore professional touch using the threshold concepts framework (TCF), which provides a theoretical model for exploring the way in which learners encounter, engage with and understand fundamental concepts in a discipline. This qualitative research synthesis (QRS) describes the use of the TCF to identify key issues involved in developing and using professional touch. Through a cross-professional analysis and synthesis of recent international literature, we aimed to identify key characteristics of the transitional journey for professional touch. Three orders of analysis were applied, employing a methodology described by Major and Savin-Baden (An introduction to qualitative research synthesis: managing the information explosion in social science research, Routledge, London, 2010). Following identification of threshold characteristics in the overall sample of articles, second order analysis revealed the nuances of professional touch associated with the characteristics. The final synthesis led to identification of five themes: touch as dialogue; being changed by touch; multiple boundaries of touch; multiple meanings of touch and influences on touch. Whilst providing support for some assertions within the literature, this QRS also offers new insights into the complexity of professional touch. Given the paucity of explicit learning and reflection around professional touch in training programmes of health professionals, the TCF reveals ways in which professional preparation might be improved to promote understanding of the role and impact of touch in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Threshold Concepts are fundamental ideas within a discipline which are transformative, integrative, irreversible and usually troublesome. This article describes the threshold concept framework and discusses how it can offer new insights into how we focus teaching and facilitate learning around these concepts, such as uncertainty. Relevant research from a range of health disciplines are explored to consider which concepts may be critical to thinking and practising effectively in primary care. In addition, it is proposed that threshold concepts may have relevance to the GP recruitment crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]