Faculty Development Provided During Work Hours: A Mixed-Methods Pilot Study for Developing Clinician Educators.

Abstract

Background: Faculty development is important but often limited by conflict with ongoing responsibilities. The Oregon Health & Science University Department of Anesthesiology & Perioperative Medicine schedules more faculty physicians to work on Wednesdays, with nonclinical time in the morning and a clinical assignment in the afternoon, to facilitate a resident physician academic half-day (AHD). We designed a novel faculty development course to run in the mornings of the AHD using Kern's 6-step approach to curriculum development and hypothesized that it would be feasible and satisfactory.

Methods: A needs assessment was performed. Two experts in medical education developed the curriculum and sought faculty with medical education training to lead sessions. Five participants completed pre-intervention, daily session, and post-intervention surveys. Satisfaction was evaluated by surveys. Feasibility was evaluated by session attendance and surveys. Kirkpatrick's model for program evaluation was used, and a thematic analysis was performed.

Results: All participants responded "Strongly Agree" to all participant satisfaction post-intervention questions. All participants were able to meet the >50% attendance goal, only missing sessions when pre-call, post-call, on vacation, or ill. All participants reported changes in behavior and reported developing their clinician educator professional identities. One participant reported re-affirming their commitment to academic medicine.

Conclusions: This faculty development pilot course provided during work hours was feasible, and participants were highly satisfied. In addition, thematic analysis suggests that the course helped faculty develop a clinician educator professional identity and changed their behavior. Future work will include a qualitative study to understand the impact on participant behavior and professional identity formation.