Effect of Resident Evaluations of Obstetrics and Gynecology Faculty on Promotion

Abstract

Background Promotion for academic faculty depends on a variety of factors, including their research, publications, national leadership, and quality of their teaching. Objective We sought to determine the importance of resident evaluations of faculty for promotion in obstetrics-gynecology programs. Methods A 28-item questionnaire was developed and distributed to 185 department chairs of US obstetrics-gynecology residency programs. Results Fifty percent (93 of 185) responded, with 40% (37 of 93) stating that teaching has become more important for promotion in the past 10 years. When faculty are being considered for promotion, teaching evaluations were deemed “very important” 60% of the time for clinician track faculty but were rated as mainly “not important” or “not applicable” for research faculty. Sixteen respondents (17%) stated a faculty member had failed to achieve promotion in the past 5 years because of poor teaching evaluations. Positive teaching evaluations outweighed low publication numbers for clinical faculty 24% of the time, compared with 5% for research faculty and 8% for tenured faculty being considered for promotion. The most common reason for rejection for promotion in all tracks was the number of publications. Awards for excellence in teaching improved chances of promotion. Conclusions Teaching quality is becoming more important in academic obstetrics-gynecology departments, especially for clinical faculty. Although in most institutions promotion is not achieved without adequate research and publications, the importance of teaching excellence is obvious, with 1 of 6 (17%) departments reporting a promotion had been denied due to poor teaching evaluations.

Student Evaluation of Faculty Physicians: Gender Differences in Teaching Evaluations

“…While the overall evaluation discrepancy of 0.09 is small, and unlikely to be the sole contributor of a department's decision to promote an individual, teaching quality is becoming increasingly important in promotion decision-making. 22 Furthermore, the differences in clinical teaching evaluations may also contribute to differences in the selection of teaching awards and recognitions within departments. Future studies should examine whether there is a difference in the gender distribution of teaching awards by medical students for clinical physician faculty.…”

Developing as an Academic Medical Educator in Obstetrics and Gynecology

“…Curran et al found that positive teaching evaluations could help offset lower publication rates for clinical-track faculty seeking promotion. 31 Additionally, they found that at least one of six departments surveyed had delayed or denied promotion based on poor teaching evaluations.…”

The Association Between Pediatric Faculty Factors and Resident Physician Ratings of Teaching Effectiveness

“…2 Thus, academic promotion and success can be affected by trainee evaluations. 3 Trainee evaluations have also been used to assess how changes to faculty roles improve clinical education. 4 Therefore, identifying and understanding factors that influence faculty evaluations is important.…”