Implementation of Faculty Learning Communities to Support Medical Education Scholarship in a Regional Campus System

Introduction: Medical educators need targeted faculty development programs to give them the skills necessary to produce educational scholarship for promotion and tenure.  At the Indiana University School of Medicine, which encompasses a large regional campus system, we implemented Faculty Learning Communities (FLCs) to provide a platform for medical educators to engage in a collaborative, year-long educational research project facilitated by a faculty member well-versed in educational research.  Methods: 18 faculty participants were assigned to one of 4 FLC groups, which met monthly from 2019 to 2020.  The participants also attended a series of one-hour monthly educational seminars designed to build foundational skills in educational research.  To assess program effectiveness, participants were surveyed at 6 months and 18 months after the start of the program.  Results: 94% of participants completed the 6-month survey and 56% completed the 18-month survey.  A majority of respondents at both time-points (88% and 60%, respectively) agreed or strongly agreed that the FLC process met their professional development needs to help move their educational scholarship forward.  At the time of the 18-month survey, 50% of respondents had submitted their work for presentation at a regional or national conference or for publication in a peer-reviewed journal, with the remainder intending to do so.  Discussion: The inaugural offering of this FLC program has established a successful and sustainable model for developing medical educators.  By employing the Plan-Do-Study-Act cycle for process improvement, several changes to the program have already been instituted that should further bolster the scholarly productivity of our medical educators.