Background:

Academic healthcare environments are rife with burnout and occupational stress injury in students, faculty and staff.  Flett and others have asserted that mattering, defined as making a difference and being important to others, is associated with health and psychological wellbeing in students in higher education. Separately, Prilleltensky et al., have demonstrated that educational institutions can nurture mattering and improve wellbeing and engagement in faculty and staff.  This suggests that creating cultures of mattering in academic healthcare could have a positive impact, however, little is known about the impact of mattering in this environment. 

Design and Methods:

We conducted a mixed methods study of medical and nursing students’ experiences of mattering and not mattering at two academic medical centers. Quantitative data included surveys on mattering, meaning, burnout, and character strengths.  Qualitative interviews explored the student experience in classroom and clinical settings.  Students identified exemplar faculty and staff who contributed to their experiences of mattering.  Exemplar educators were then interviewed.

Results:

We interviewed 41 students and 20 exemplar educators.  Interviews were transcribed and coded. We then conducted thematic and domain analysis.  The student data revealed that mattering was impacted by institutional norms (e.g. transparency, psychological safety), relational factors (e.g. being addressed by name), specific behaviors by educators (e.g. being validated in front of patients), and student behaviors (e.g. spending time with patients).  Exemplar data demonstrated intentional effort to get to know students as individuals and in facilitating students’ ability to contribute. 

Implications:

This study is the first to pair experiences of student mattering with the behaviors of their faculty exemplars.  It is also one of the first explorations of mattering in healthcare education, although we believe many findings are generalizable to other disciplines and educational settings.  We have identified actionable items that institutions, educators, and students can use to enhance mattering.