Faculty development in medical education research

Top emergency medicine faculty development papers since 2000: A Delphi study

Objectives

Faculty development is essential for academic emergency physicians to maintain clinical skills and succeed in administrative and leadership roles and for career advancement and satisfaction. Faculty developers in emergency medicine (EM) may struggle to find shared resources to guide faculty development efforts in a way that builds on existing knowledge. We aimed to review the EM-specific faculty development literature since 2000 and come to a consensus about the most useful for EM faculty developers.

Methods

A database search was conducted on the topic of faculty development in EM from 2000 to 2020. After identifying relevant articles, we performed a modified Delphi process in three rounds, using a team of educators with a range of experiences with faculty development and education research, to identify articles that would be most useful to a broad audience of faculty developers.

Results

We identified 287 potentially relevant articles on the topic of EM faculty development, 244 from the initial literature search, 42 from manual review of the references of the papers meeting inclusion criteria, and one by our study group's recommendation. Thirty-six papers met final inclusion criteria and underwent full-text review by our team. The Delphi process yielded six articles that were deemed most highly relevant over the three rounds. Each of these articles is described here, along with summaries and implications for faculty developers.

Conclusions

We present the most useful EM papers from the past two decades for faculty developers seeking to develop, implement, or revise faculty development interventions.

The MedEdPORTAL Infinity Mirror: Conducting an Interactive Workshop on How to Develop an Educational Summary Report for MedEdPORTAL

INTRODUCTION

MedEdPORTAL is an open-access journal for health professions educators to publish their educational activities. The Educational Summary Report (ESR) is the manuscript that represents scholarly expression of those activities, aligned with Glassick's criteria for scholarship; however, prospective authors face challenges in writing ESRs, which can lead to rejection.

METHODS

We developed a conference workshop to teach health professions educators how to write an ESR by reviewing a sample ESR in small groups. The workshop began with a didactic on best practices in crafting each section of an ESR. We then divided participants into small groups to review an assigned section of a sample ESR using a reviewer's checklist and completing a templated flip chart. Each small group then reported out in a large-group discussion. A conference evaluation was distributed online to solicit perceptions of the workshop's effectiveness.

RESULTS

The 90-minute workshop was presented by separate teams of two facilitators at three national conferences. Approximately 35 participants attended the first workshop, and 50 attended the second and third workshops. Survey feedback from 19 respondents (38%) to the evaluation survey at the third workshop was representative of the previous two iterations and demonstrated that workshop content and materials were helpful.

DISCUSSION

A workshop enabling educators to serve as group peer reviewers of a sample ESR for a MedEdPORTAL submission was well received. Associate editors, faculty mentors, and other experienced faculty development leaders can use these materials to support future authors in submitting to MedEdPORTAL while providing opportunities for national presentations.

Addressing needs of diverse stakeholders: Twelve tips for leaders of health professions education programs

Designing and evaluating health professions educational programs require a range of skills in a rapidly changing educational and healthcare environment. Not all program directors possess all the required leadership skills. In this twelve tips article, we describe a systematic approach to effectively address the complexity facing program leadership, implement robust programs and meaningfully evaluate their impact. They also offer a roadmap for managing diverse stakeholders with often competing demands. The tips are categorized under three domains: Planning, Initial Implementation, and Monitoring. Specific recommendations are provided on addressing context, organizational culture, and key relationships along with practical techniques adapted from continuous quality improvement programs. An outcomes-based approach ensures that program leaders balance competing demands. The tips provide a structure for educational leaders worldwide to reflect on what is feasible in their own context, understand and address complexities in program design and evaluation, regardless of the resources at their disposal.

Health Education Advanced Leadership for Zimbabwe (Healz): Developing the Infrastructure to Support Curriculum Reform

An economic crisis in Zimbabwe from 1999-2009 resulted in a shortage of faculty at the University of Zimbabwe College of Health Sciences (UZCHS) and declining enrollment and graduation rates. To improve proficiency and retention of graduates, the college sought to develop a competency-based curriculum using evidence-based educational methodologies. Achievement of this goal required a cadre of highly qualified educators to lead the curriculum review and innovation processes. The Health Education Advanced Leadership for Zimbabwe (HEALZ) program was established in 2012 to rapidly develop the needed faculty leadership. HEALZ is a one-year program of rigorous coursework delivered face-to-face in three intensive one-week sessions. Between sessions, scholars engage with mentors to conduct a needs assessment and to develop, implement, and evaluate a competency-based curriculum. Forty scholars completed training from 2012-15. All participants reported they were satisfied or extremely satisfied with the training after each week. Pre-post surveys identified significant knowledge gains in all key content domains. The program garnered significant organizational support. Scholars showed significant variation in progress toward implementing and evaluating their curricula as well as the quality of the work demonstrated by program end. Interviews of scholars and UZCHS leaders revealed important impacts of the program on the quality and culture of medical education at the college.

CAEP 2014 Academic Symposium: "How to make research succeed in your emergency department: How to develop and train career researchers in emergency medicine"

OBJECTIVES

We sought to 1) identify best practices for training and mentoring clinician researchers, 2) characterize facilitators and barriers for Canadian emergency medicine researchers, and 3) develop pragmatic recommendations to improve and standardize emergency medicine postgraduate research training programs to build research capacity.

METHODS

We performed a systematic review of MEDLINE and Embase using search terms relevant to emergency medicine research fellowship/graduate training. We conducted an email survey of all Canadian emergency physician researchers. The Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM) research fellowship program was analysed, and other similar international programs were sought. An expert panel reviewed these data and presented recommendations at the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians (CAEP) 2014 Academic Symposium. We refined our recommendations based on feedback received.

RESULTS

Of 1,246 potentially relevant citations, we included 10 articles. We identified five key themes: 1) creating training opportunities; 2) ensuring adequate protected time; 3) salary support; 4) infrastructure; and 5) mentorship. Our survey achieved a 72% (67/93) response rate. From these responses, 42 (63%) consider themselves clinical researchers (i.e., spend a significant proportion of their career conducting research). The single largest constraint to conducting research was funding. Factors felt to be positive contributors to a clinical research career included salary support, research training (including an advanced graduate degree), mentorship, and infrastructure. The SAEM research fellowship was the only emergency medicine research fellowship program identified. This 2-year program requires approval of both the teaching centre and each applying fellow. This program requires training in 15 core competencies, manuscript preparation, and submission of a large grant to a national peer-review funding organization.

CONCLUSIONS

We recommend that the CAEP Academic Section create a process to endorse research fellowship/graduate training programs. These programs should include two phases: Phase I: Research fellowship/graduate training would include an advanced research university degree and 15 core learning areas. Phase II: research consolidation involves a further 1-3 years with an emphasis on mentorship and scholarship production. It is anticipated that clinician scientists completing Phase I and Phase II training at a CAEP Academic Section-endorsed site(s) will be independent researchers with a higher likelihood of securing external peer-reviewed funding and be able to have a meaningful external impact in emergency medicine research.

Education scholarship in emergency medicine part 2: supporting and developing scholars

Emergency medicine (EM) is defined, in part, by clinical excellence across an immense breadth of content and the provision of exemplary bedside teaching to a wide variety of learners. The specialty is also well-suited to a number of emerging areas of education scholarship, particularly in relation to team-based learning, clinical reasoning, acute care response, and simulation-based teaching. The success of EM education scholarship will be predicated on systematic, collective attention to providing the infrastructure for this to occur. Specifically, as a new generation of emergency physicians prepares for education careers, academic organizations need to develop means not only to identify potential scholars but also to mentor, support, and encourage their careers. This paper summarizes the supporting literature and presents related recommendations from a 2013 consensus conference on EM education scholarship led by the Academic Section of the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians.

Education scholarship in emergency medicine part 1: innovating and improving teaching and learning

As emergency medicine (EM) education evolves, a more advanced understanding of education scholarship is required. This article is the first in a series of three articles that reports the recommendations of the 2013 education scholarship consensus conference of the Academic Section of the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians. Adopting the Canadian Association for Medical Education's definition, education scholarship (including both research and innovation) is defined. A rationale for why education scholarship should be a priority for EM is discussed.

Medical education research in the context of translational science

Health care struggles to transfer recent discoveries into high-quality medical care. Therefore, translational science seeks to improve the health of patients and communities by studying and promoting the translation of findings from bench research into clinical care. Similarly, medical education practice may be slow to adopt proven evidence of better learning and assessment. The Academic Emergency Medicine (AEM) consensus conference was designed to promote the dissemination of evidence-based education research and practice. We will pull from the work developed by the consensus conference as a means to create a roadmap for future medical education research using the framework of translational science.