ENHANCING TEACHING SKILLS FOR MEDICAL EDUCATORS: A VIRTUAL FACULTY DEVELOPMENT SERIES FOR RESIDENCY PROGRAM FACULTY IN A GEOGRAPHICALLY DIVERSE HEALTH SYSTEM

ABSTRACT

SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: Since 2020, allopathic and osteopathic residency programs have been required to meet uniform standards under the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME). These standards require programs to advance teaching skills and education scholarship among faculty. Resources to address these requirements are commonly available in large, urban GME programs. However, meeting the standards can be challenging for smaller, community-based programs, particularly those that were previously accredited by the American Osteopathic Association (AOA). “Enhancing Teaching Skills for Medical Educators” was created to promote core teaching and education scholarship competencies, and advance collaboration among medical educators in the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) Graduate Medical Education (GME) system, which is the third largest GME system in the US and includes sites within 200-miles of Pittsburgh. This virtual faculty development program was designed to be convenient, digestible, feasible, and relevant to GME educators in diverse settings. Faculty from UPMC residency programs are invited to participate. Since inception in 2019, participation has increased from 10-15 to more than 50 participants per session, representing multiple sites and specialties. DESCRIPTION “Enhancing Teaching Skills” is a virtual webinar offered over the lunch hour every other month during the academic year. We choose core topics in education that are practically applied to real-life teaching scenarios, so they are relevant for the broad faculty audience. Facilitators include at least one allopathic physician, most of whom are faculty in the Department of Medicine, and one osteopathic physician, most of whom are community-based internists or family medicine physicians. The latter are encouraged to include osteopathic principles to appeal to programs with an osteopathic focus, including those seeking Osteopathic Recognition. Participants are offered AMA or AOA CME credit. Sessions are recorded and archived online. The series has completed a total of 15 sessions over 4 academic years to date. EVALUATION Formal assessment is being planned. Informal, qualitative feedback indicates participants find the sessions are relevant and convenient. As participation is voluntary, the sustained increase in attendance is a testament to the value educators find in participation. DISCUSSION / REFLECTION / LESSONS LEARNED The success of our series has stemmed from the high degree of collaboration between academically- based faculty and those who work in community settings, the convenience of a virtual session, and the practical teaching strategies that can be employed in diverse teaching settings. Although our series has been held in virtual format since inception, the COVID-19 pandemic has increased the comfort of facilitators and participants with virtual teaching. The archived content creates a curriculum that supports ongoing education for faculty and chief residents throughout the GME network.