Leaders' Perspectives on Resources for Academic Success: Defining Clinical Effort, Academic Time, and Faculty Support

INTRODUCTION

For academic promotion, clinical faculty are expected to excel in clinical care, teaching, and scholarship. Ensuring adequate protected time and resources to engage in scholarly work in the face of competing clinical responsibilities is critical. The authors examined academic leaders' perspectives across affiliate hospitals of a large medical school regarding the definition of clinical full-time effort and academic time, best practices to enable academic success, and barriers to faculty advancement.

METHODS

Open-ended, semistructured, individual interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of clinical department and division heads. Interview data were examined to illuminate the range and commonalities in practices and to identify successful approaches.

RESULTS

Interviews were conducted with 17 academic leaders across 6 affiliate hospitals. There was considerable variability in clinical full-time effort definition. "Academic time," more accurately characterized as "nonclinical time," was typically 1 day a week for nonshift specialties and mostly used for administrative work or completing clinical documentation. Certain departments were more explicit in designating and protecting time for academic pursuits; some had invested resources in intensive programs for academic advancement with built-in expectations for accountability. The impact of documentation burden was considerable in certain departments.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

Marked variability exists in time allocations for clinical and academic work, as well as in resources for academic success. This supports the potential value of establishing standards for defining and protecting academic time, motivating clinical faculty to engage in academic work, and building accountability expectations. Sharing best practices and setting standards may enhance academic advancement. Strategies to reduce documentation burden may enhance wellness.

Consistent scholarship standards among DNP-prepared faculty needed: Actionable insights

DNP-prepared faculty report challenges and barriers to achieving success in academic roles when criteria for promotion includes scholarship. The purpose of this evidence-based initiative was to explore thoughtful scholarship standards for DNP-prepared faculty which can be adapted and transferred across academic institutions with the goal of elevating faculty scholarship. Given a paucity of available research evidence, a review and synthesis of non-research evidence was conducted. DNP scholarship standards from high-ranking intuitions were critically appraised, and this evidence, along with the diverse and collective expertise of the authors, was translated into recommendations for an inclusive model of rigor for DNP-prepared faculty scholarship. A template for appraising the scholarship of DNP-prepared faculty based on strategic evaluation of impact is included. Academic institutions may use this work to expand the fundamental level of evolving scholarship, determine parameters, and provide clarity and support to DNP-prepared faculty as they seek to progress in rank.

A Mixed-Methods Analysis of the Promotion and Tenure Process for Experiential Education Faculty

OBJECTIVE

To understand the process of the promotion and tenure (P&T) as experienced by faculty members in experiential education (EE).

METHODS

A quantitative survey of EE faculty at any academic rank investigated the general landscape of experiences in P&T. Phenomenological qualitative interviews with faculty who currently work in EE and who achieved promotion to full professor while working within EE provided additional context. Analysis was completed using a mixed-methods approach. Incomplete survey responses were excluded.

RESULTS

Survey respondents indicated feeling different from other clinical faculty, particularly in the need to justify their work to the P&T committee (26/38; 68%). Respondents noted how challenging the P&T process was and perceived a lack of understanding of EE work among P&T committee members, chairs, and/or colleagues. In qualitative interviews, 3 themes emerged, which were characterizing a misunderstood role; navigating an unclear process with creativity and courage; and seeking outside-of-the-box mentoring.

CONCLUSION

Experiential education faculty may require specific guidance and a thoughtful approach in tailoring their dossier for the P&T process, especially in accounting for administrative work and other unique aspects of the role. To promote inclusivity and retention of EE faculty, greater understanding of the EE role is needed as it applies to guidelines for P&T. Furthermore, EE faculty and others with unique roles should receive guidance to meaningfully apply P&T guidelines in a manner that best represents their role.

Recommendations for Assessing the Quality of Clinical Faculty Members' Journal Publications

Evaluation of clinical faculty involves an assessment of the quality of their publications in addition to quantity (number) of publications. In contrast to assessing quantity, assessing quality is difficult. The purpose of this paper is to discuss practical considerations and provide recommendations related to quality of publications that clinical faculty members should bear in mind as part of their overall scholarship activity. College and schools of pharmacy may not provide written criteria for assessing quality of publications, so it is important that clinical faculty members seek guidance from their department chair or direct supervisor, experienced colleagues, and formal or informal mentors or advisers. One criterion for assessing quality is whether a publication was evaluated through a peer-review process although there are other considerations including dissemination of the paper via search engines such as PubMed. Clinical faculty also need to consider authorship order on their papers and potential journals for submission.

Scholarly maturation and other factors supporting publishing productivity in educational scholarship for clinical faculty

INTRODUCTION

In order to advance curricula and faculty career progression, it would be helpful to increase publishing success and productivity in educational scholarship. The objective of this study was to describe the key factors and strategies that contribute to publishing success and productivity in the publication of educational scholarship by clinical pharmacy faculty.

METHODS

Participants were identified from 2007 to 2016 PubMed and Science Direct publication records or by having received the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy Emerging Teaching Scholars Award. Participants were required to have an active clinical practice and not have administrative positions or doctor of philosophy training. Qualitative data were gathered through dyadic and individual interviews and analyzed to identify core factors contributing to publishing success and productivity.

RESULTS

Nine clinical pharmacy faculty participated in dyadic or individual interviews, including seven associate professors and two professors. Participants' teaching and learning publications covered two to 13 topic areas, and participants had 20 to 70 unique co-authors. Five core factors and 17 strategies were identified as supporting publishing success and productivity in educational scholarship. The five factors included inputs/assets, the team, the project, the process, and scholarly maturation.

CONCLUSIONS

Participants' responses confirm some conceptions, while also disputing common misconceptions that may discourage clinical faculty from pursuing educational scholarship. Fundamental research skill development is required in educational scholarship as in other scholarly areas. In addition, the roles of team building, receiving and providing mentorship, and the development of small significant networks merit further investigation as assets to productivity.

Scholastic synergy: A team prototype for pharmacy faculty engagement in education, research, and service

INTRODUCTION

Many clinical faculty members are challenged by competing factors of scholarly productivity, education, service obligations, and patient care. A team-based approach has the potential to synergistically increase productivity and mitigate factors associated with burnout.

METHODS

The purpose of this report is to discuss a prototype for a small, team-based, practice-oriented collaborative approach to advancing critical care pharmacy practice through research and education. Productivity was evaluated in the areas of scholarship and teaching.

RESULTS

This team was formed in 2017 and includes five critical care faculty across four campuses from a single academic institution. This collaborative has published peer-reviewed articles, secured grant funding, and developed novel teaching modalities.

CONCLUSIONS

Challenges encountered include timeline adherence, development of uniform data collection processes, clarifying roles and expectations for different projects, and authorship. This team may act as a prototype for clinical faculty teams to enhance engagement and scholarship productivity in a practice-based setting.

Ophthalmology Departments Remain Among the Least Diverse Clinical Departments at United States Medical Schools

PURPOSE

The current demographics of the ophthalmology workforce do not reflect the diverse United States population, which has implications for addressing health disparities. The demographics of ophthalmology department faculty may influence the recruitment of underrepresented students into the field. This study sought to determine how the racial and ethnic demographics of ophthalmology department faculty compare with those of other clinical departments at United States medical schools.

DESIGN

Secondary data analysis of medical school faculty demographic data from the 2019 American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC) Faculty Roster.

PARTICIPANTS

Clinical faculty and department chairs at United States medical schools.

METHODS

We analyzed the racial and ethnic demographics of clinical department faculty and department chairpersons using data from the 2019 AAMC Faculty Roster. We calculated the proportion of underrepresented minority (URM) faculty in ophthalmology and in 17 other clinical departments. We analyzed these data for statistically significant differences between ophthalmology and other clinical departments. In addition, we compared the percentage of URM ophthalmology faculty with the proportion of URM persons among graduating United States medical students and in the United States population using data from the Medical School Graduation Questionnaire and the United States census, respectively.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

The proportion of URM persons, defined as Black, Hispanic or Latino, Native American, or Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander among clinical faculty and department chairs.

RESULTS

Ophthalmology faculty are less racially and ethnically diverse than graduating medical students and the general United States population. When compared with 17 other clinical departments, ophthalmology has the third-lowest proportion of URM faculty, with only radiology and orthopedic surgery having a smaller proportion of URM faculty. These differences were statistically significant in most departments (12 of 18). No statistically significant difference was found in the proportion of URM department chairs in ophthalmology compared with most other clinical departments, although the absolute number of URM chairs in ophthalmology is low at only 8 chairpersons.

CONCLUSIONS

More work must be done to increase the recruitment of URM physicians into ophthalmology faculty positions to obtain parity with other clinical departments and with the diverse patient populations that physicians serve.

From clinical assistant to clinical associate professor: Examination of a sample of promotion guidelines

INTRODUCTION

As accreditation standards for doctor of pharmacy programs have placed a greater emphasis on practice experiences, programs have a need for more clinical faculty. While clinical faculty are expected to achieve success in teaching, scholarly activity, and service, they tend to hold lower academic ranks and take more time to achieve promotion. This may be especially true when promotion guidelines lack clarity.

METHODS

Guidelines for promotion of clinical faculty from assistant to associate rank for 10, research-intensive pharmacy programs were reviewed for predetermined factors in the areas of teaching, scholarly activity, and service using the following scale: required, desired, considered, not considered, or not specified. Some factors reviewed included: classroom teaching hours, number of clerkship students, types of scholarly activity considered, grantsmanship, and patient care services.

RESULTS

There is significant variation in criteria utilized when considering promotion of clinical faculty from assistant to associate rank; few programs provide quantifiable requirements. All programs expect clinical faculty to participate in teaching. Only one program quantifies the amount of teaching expected. One program does not describe types of scholarly activity considered for promotion. No programs expect salary support from grants for clinical faculty. All programs consider direct patient care activities.

CONCLUSIONS

A wide variety of criteria are considered when evaluating a clinical faculty member for promotion to the rank of associate professor. Clearly defined promotion criteria may help faculty direct their efforts toward activities that are recognized to ensure timely promotion.

Mitigating the Challenges of Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) in Nursing Education: A Phenomenological Research Study

BACKGROUND

Objective evaluation of clinical competencies is a key component of undergraduate nursing education programs. Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE), widely used in nursing education internationally has limited utilization in undergraduate nursing programs in the United States. The efficacy of OSCE as a valuable method of objective evaluation of students' clinical competencies is not so much the problem for the nursing faculty; overcoming the impediments of its implementation is a much greater challenge.

OBJECTIVE

To explore the strategies for mitigating the challenges of OSCE in baccalaureate nursing education program.

DESIGN/PARTICIPANTS/SETTING

In this descriptive phenomenological research study, 10 undergraduate nursing faculty participated in semi-structured interviews at a public university in the North-Eastern region of United States.

METHOD

Observations and semi-structured interviews were conducted. All interviews were recorded and transcribed. Colaizzi seven steps analysis framework was used to identify major themes in the collected data. The clear, detailed, and sequential procedural processes in both data collection and analysis ensured rigorous and trustworthy results.

RESULTS

Five mitigating OSCE strategies utilized by the faculty included: administrative and technical supports, use of clinical instructors during evaluation, faculty OSCE education, limitation of validation to the required skills essential for professional practice, and collaboration among all course faculty members.

CONCLUSION

Utilization of OSCE as an objective evaluation method is feasible in United States undergraduate nursing education programs if creative strategies are determined to mitigate its challenges.

Changes in nursing students' expectations of nursing clinical faculties' competences: A longitudinal, mixed methods study

BACKGROUND

Changes in nursing students' expectations of their clinical nursing faculty competences over the course of time are an insufficiently researched phenomenon.

OBJECTIVES

To explore what competences BSc nursing students expect from their clinical faculties during their clinical training, and whether their expectations changed during their three-year studies. Furthermore, to survey factors which influenced their expectations and whether the fulfilment levels of their expectations influenced their feelings, learning, and behaviour.

DESIGN

A two-phase, mixed-methods design was used.

SETTINGS

The Higher Nursing Education Institution in Osijek, Croatia, European Union.

PARTICIPANTS

A cohort of 34 BSc nursing students, who were followed over the course of their three-year studies.

METHODS

In Phase I, in each year, prior to their clinical training, participants responded to the same modified Nursing Clinical Teacher Effectiveness Inventory questionnaire about their expectations of clinical faculties' competences (52 items representing six categories of competences). In Phase II, seven days after their graduation, participants wrote reflections on the aforementioned expectations during their studies.

RESULTS

The results show that Clinical faculties' evaluation of student was the category in which participants had the highest expectations in all three years. Results of Wilcoxon signed rank test indicate a significant increase of participants' expectations in all categories of clinical nursing faculties' competences during their study. Participants' reflections confirm these results and indicate that actual competences of clinical faculties and behaviour have the most significant effects on the change in these expectations. Participants reported that expectations, if fulfilled, facilitate their learning and motivation for better performance.

CONCLUSIONS

BSc nursing students' expectations of clinical nursing faculty competences represent an important concept, as they obviously determine the quality of faculty practice. Hence, they should be considered in the preparation, implementation, and evaluation phase of this vital part of nursing education.

Transitions into practice: First patient care experiences of baccalaureate nursing students

An essential component of the learning process for nursing and other disciplines in health professions education is the structuring of successful clinical experiences for beginning students. The purpose of this research study was to explore and describe first patient care experiences of baccalaureate nursing students in order to better understand student perspectives and perceptions. Data were collected from three cohorts of baccalaureate nursing in two university settings in the first semester following completion of first patient care experiences. A basic, exploratory qualitative approach with overtones of grounded theory was used for data collection and analysis. Three clear themes emerged from the data analysis. Participants experienced emotional responses of Anticipation, including fear, nervousness, and anxiety. The clinical experiences allowed Processing ∼ Working Through, which was impacted by actions of instructors, nurses and patients. Participants developed Awareness as a result of their experiences.