Short report: Transitions in health professional education: Theory, research and practice

Abstract

Transitions matter in health professional education; they are ever present and can be highly productive for learning but sometimes challenging (Ecclestone, Biesta, and Hughes, 2010). Indeed, the oft-reported transition from final-year healthcare student to new graduate illustrates how transitions can impact negatively on new graduates' well-being and retention (Aubusson, 2017). This invited short report highlights the key messages from my ANZAHPE 2017 conference keynote, which attempted to answer three questions: What are transitions across health professional education? How can we research educational transitions? How can we help students and professionals navigate educational transitions? Furthermore, I have synthesised key patterns across other transition-related presentations given at the conference, before ending with some suggestions for further transitions research.