Miriam Boillat

Faculty development: a ‘Field of Dreams’?

Objectives  Participants in faculty development workshops often comment that ‘those who need faculty development the most attend the least’. The goals of this study were to explore the reasons why some clinical teachers do not participate in centralised faculty development activities and to learn how we can make faculty development programmes more relevant to teachers’ needs.

Faculty development: if you build it, they will come.

Medical Education 2010: 44: 900–907

The Osler Fellowship: an apprenticeship for medical educators.

Purpose As part of a renewed focus on the physician as healer and professional at McGill University, faculty members were recruited to teach in a four-year, longitudinal doctoring course called Physician Apprenticeship. The goal of this study was to examine the impact of this experience and the accompanying faculty development program on the teachers, known as Osler Fellows. Method An interviewer conducted semistructured interviews with 23 clinicians to understand their experiences as Osler Fellows and ascertain their views on how the workshop-based faculty development program, designed to mirror student experiences, differed from other professional development activities. Results The notion of connection and reconnection with the profession emerged as a major theme, consisting of four subthemes: the joy of working with students, the desire to make a difference, the process of reflection and renewal, and the building of community. Distinctive aspects of the faculty development program included the value of a common purpose, content that corresponded with core values, a sense of continuity, peer mentorship, and the emergence of a community of practice. Teachers also reported a sense of honor in being associated with Oslers name and a feeling of privilege in accompanying students on their journeys of discovery. Conclusions Participating in the Osler Fellowship, an example of situated and work-based learning, resulted in a sense of connection with students, medical education, core professional values, and colleagues. As medical educators continue to develop longitudinal mentoring programs, the authors hope that these findings will offer insights on faculty development, recruitment, and renewal.

faculty and student support: Faculty development: if you build it, they will come

Medical Education 2010: 44: 900–907

Twelve tips for using the Objective Structured Teaching Exercise for faculty development

Background: The importance of faculty development to improve clinicians’ teaching skills has been well articulated in the literature. There are few objective measures of the impact of faculty development on teaching skills. The objective structured teaching exercise (OSTE) is a faculty development tool that may meet this challenge. It also has great potential to be used in the development and enhancement of teaching skills. The OSTE consists of a simulated teaching scenario involving a standardized learner with objective and immediate feedback given to the teacher, and includes a pre-determined behaviourally based scale or checklist to assess teaching performance. Aim: There is little information in the literature on the practical aspects of how to develop and deliver an OSTE in a faculty development context. Based on our experience, we created a framework to guide the use of the OSTE for faculty development. Methods: Twelve tips for using the OSTE for faculty development are outlined in this article. These include: clarifying the goal and target audience, identifying what teaching skills to focus on, developing the scenario and the assessment tool, choosing and training the standardized learner, holding a dry run, protecting the teacher, integrating the OSTE into ones own context and promoting buy-in, and evaluating the activity. Conclusions: The OSTE is a novel tool to enhance faculty development. We describe 12 key elements that are important for its successful development and delivery.

An integrated curriculum for teaching preparatory clinical skills at a traditional medical school

In 1991, the Liaison Committee on Medical Education stated that medical schools must be responsible for designing and managing a coherent and coordinated curriculum. With respect to preparatory clinical skills, there have been no reports in the literature of an integrated and longitudinal approach to curriculum design or a description of a medical school with the administrative and educational structure to implement one. This article describes such an effort at McGill Universitys Faculty of Medicine. aVarious advantageous features are described: (a) a subcurriculum committee and an administrative structure to oversee the project, (b) early introduction to patients, (c) a comprehensive small‐group program, (d) the use of “near‐peer”; teachers, and (e) a process of faculty development. The longitudinal integration of these features is particularly noteworthy because the overall curriculum at McGill has been based largely on the traditional Flexnerian model of medical education consisting of approximately 2...

Developing successful workshops: a workshop for educators

Background: Many educators have had little or no preparation in the design, delivery or evaluation of workshops. Methods: This faculty development intervention consisted of a faculty development workshop on Developing Successful Workshops; a workbook to guide independent study; and peer consultations. Program evaluation included immediate and delayed post-workshop evaluations, tracking of site-specific activities, and assessment of self-perceived efficacy. Results: Participants found the workshop very useful, highlighting the assessment of learner needs, goal-setting, “matching” of objectives to content and methods, and use of a structured framework as most beneficial. Nine months after the intervention, seven of eleven participants had conducted a workshop in their own settings. Self-assessment of skills in workshop design also increased. Conclusion: A workshop on Developing Successful Workshops can help participants to understand the principles of workshop design and delivery.

Peer Coaching and Mentorship

Peer coaching and mentorship, underutilized approaches for faculty development, can assist faculty in the fulfillment of their multiple academic roles. Strengths of these strategies include their interpersonal nature, the prominence of individualized feedback, and the promotion of self-reflective goals and practices. Peer coaching is an innovative faculty development approach that differs from the usual expert-learner model. It is a highly relational, collaborative, and performance-based learning process that depends on peer-to-peer collaboration and peer consultations. Mentorship allows a faculty member to draw upon the experience, advice, and expertise of a colleague. As a faculty development strategy, mentorship may be particularly useful for developing an individual’s research capacity or facilitating leadership or career development. Drawing upon the relevant literature, the goals of this chapter are to describe the key features and processes involved for each of these faculty development strategies, to illustrate their benefits and limitations, and to consider areas for further development.

Are mentors born or made

five stations: blood pressure measurement; a patient with an unusual headache; a patient with marked indicators of dengue; a child with dehydration, and an instance of alcohol abuse. SurveyMonkey was used to administer two surveys in our institution prior to the implementation of the OSCE. The goal was to learn how students and teachers viewed the clinical competence evaluation and the current institutional assessment model. Students recognised that assessment is part of the teaching process and encourages medical study, but they had previously experienced badly elaborated tests. Teacher responses indicated that they felt assessments prepare students better and that the evaluation of clinical competence is essential. Teachers believe that assessments are formative and summative, and suggest that the former quality is the more important. Teachers viewed the clinical competence evaluation as an assessment of skills and performance. The OSCE performance assessment was implemented and included the provision of feedback to students over five stations. It was then re-implemented with 10 stations which involved 16 teachers (11 evaluators, two observers, two actors and a coordinator) and 19 students (10 actors and nine evaluators). Each station lasted 10 minutes, of which 8 minutes were devoted to evaluation and the provision of immediate feedback to students about performance. A further SurveyMonkey exercise was conducted after the OSCE. Students’ views following this survey were that the OSCE was extremely important to their development and was fundamental to their medical course. Students felt they should be encouraged to take part in this method of evaluation, although many of them disclosed much anxiety. The OSCE with feedback met their expectations and the consensus was that this new method of clinical competence evaluation should be implemented in the medical course. What lessons were learned? The OSCE with feedback is an important tool in the evaluation of clinical competence and is able to motivate teachers and students alike. Faculty staff recognised that the OSCE with feedback is helpful in the academic and professional development of undergraduate students. Faculty staff felt motivated to work with performance assessment and planned to include it as part of the faculty development programme. Each step of the development and implementation of the OSCE provided both faculty staff and students with opportunities to reflect about the learning process, the evaluation and the overall structure of their medical course. Correspondence : Marcelo Cruzeiro, Department of Internal Medicine, Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Avenida Eugênio Nascimento s/n, Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais 3603-833, Brazil. Tel: 00 55 32 2102 3829; E-mail: marcelomcruzeiro@me.com

Assessing a faculty development workshop in narrative medicine

Background: Narrative medicine is increasingly popular in undergraduate medical curricula. Moreover, although faculty are expected to use narrative approaches in teaching, few faculty development learning activities have been described. In addition, data on the impact of faculty development initiatives designed to teach narrative are limited, and there is a paucity of tools to assess their impact. Aims: To assess the impact and outcomes of a faculty development workshop on narrative medicine. Methods: Two groups of clinical teachers were studied; one group had already attended a half-day narrative medicine workshop (N = 10) while the other had not yet attended (N = 9). Both groups were interviewed about their uses of narrative in teaching and practice. Additionally, the understanding of a set of narrative skills was assessed by first viewing a video of a narrative-based teaching session followed by completion of an 18-item assessment tool. Results: Both groups reported that they used narrative in both their teaching and clinical practice. Those who had attended the workshop articulated a more nuanced understanding of narrative terms compared to those who had not yet attended. Conclusion: This study is one of the first to describe measureable impacts of a faculty development workshop on narrative medicine.