An Assessment of the Faculty Development Needs of Junior Clinical Faculty in Emergency Medicine

Abstract

Objectives: Academic physicians must be able to access the resources necessary to support their ongoing professional development and meet requirements for continued academic advancement. The authors sought to determine the self-perceived career development needs of junior clinical faculty in emergency medicine (EM) and the availability of educational resources to meet those needs.Methods: An educational ''needs assessment'' survey was distributed to 954 American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) members listed in the ACEP database as being faculty at EM residency programs in the United States and having graduated from an EM residency within the past 7 years. Respondents were asked to rank the importance of 22 areas of faculty development to their own professional growth and then to indicate whether educational resources in each area were available to them. Respondents were also asked to note the educational formats they prefer. A search for currently available resources in each topic area was undertaken and compared to the survey results.Results: A total of 240 responses were received. Self-perceived career development needs were identified in the following areas: bedside teaching, lecture development, business skills, managerial skills, educational research, mentorship and career counseling, interpersonal skills, leadership skills, scholarly writing skills, physician wellness, and knowledge of the faculty development process. While a review of currently available educational resources revealed lectures, conferences, and online materials pertinent to most of these topics, a relative lack of resources in the areas of mentorship and physician wellness was identified.Conclusions: Junior clinical faculty in EM perceive a lack of educational resources in a number of areas of faculty development. The academic community of EM should strive to improve awareness of and access to currently existing resources and to develop additional resources to address the area of physician wellness. The lack of mentorship in academic EM continues to be a problem in search of a solution.

A National Faculty Development Needs Assessment in Emergency Medicine

“…Furthermore, as in previous studies, [4][5][6]16 our results show that medical education was the core of an AEP's non-clinical duties in the population sampled, with respondents reporting over 98% participation in this activity. AEPs expressed a need for better individual and bedside teaching skills, including teaching around cases and providing effective feedback.…”

“…With the evolution of a career, the FD needs of senior AEPs shift from educational activities towards those in leadership and social accountability. This supplements the information provided by Farley et al 16 about junior emergency medicine physicians. Similarly, CCFP-trained AEPs participated less in non-clinical activities than their FRCP-trained colleagues.…”

“…Survey questions were extracted from previous FD surveys 10,16,18,19,29 and evaluated by collaborating experts. The final instrument was then pilot tested in Calgary prior to national release during December 2011-June 2012.…”

“…Social accountability, as it is used here, refers to the obligation of physicians to direct their educational, research, and service activities towards addressing the health concerns of the community, region, and/or nation they have a mandate to serve. 34 Although elements of scholarship and social accountability were included in previous surveys under traditional category headings, 16,[18][19][20]23,26 with increasing recognition that these are significant facets of an AEP's career, 7,13,21 these latter two categories were added and expanded to allow for a more comprehensive evaluation.…”

“…2,9,10 More recently, the paradigm of FD has shifted; individual medical faculties are now offering FD curricula, the content and format of which is being informed by the faculty members themselves through focus groups and surveys. 4,5,[11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23] These needs assessments are useful in identifying the specific gaps in knowledge or training that FD can address. 24,25 Across the country, several medical faculties have conducted single-center needs assessment surveys, [18][19][20] though no comprehensive and uniform assessment has yet been completed in Canada.…”