A needs assessment of medical school faculty: caring for the caretakers.

INTRODUCTION: We conducted an assessment of need for faculty development and mentoring in a medical school to guide program planning and use of scarce resources. METHODS: A multifaceted approach included semi-structured interviews, nominal group process, and a 36-item questionnaire to reach all faculty in the school, including senior administrators. RESULTS: With a 72% response rate, we validated the questionnaire and, using principal components analysis, identified and prioritized the eight interpretable subdimensions: personal growth, achieving balance, teaching, professional networking, research, administrative skills, career progression, and diversity/ethics. All groups of faculty prioritized learning for sustaining their vitality, balancing their personal and professional lives, finding meaning in their work, relationships, and personal growth. Senior administrators prioritized the following for faculty: time management, an institutional outlook, teamwork, and improved performance in teaching, research, and clinical practice. Junior faculty expressed the need for mentoring, scholarship, research, and career planning. DISCUSSION: Attention to faculty humanistic needs and the disparity between the perceived needs by faculty and senior administrators may help explain the attrition of faculty in academic medicine.

Helping medical school faculty realize their dreams: an innovative, collaborative mentoring program.

Junior faculty wishing to achieve successful careers in academic medicine face many challenges. To facilitate faculty in their career development, the authors implemented and evaluated an innovative collaborative, or peer-group, mentoring program at their medical school. Based on Rogerian and adult learning principles, the program incorporated development of skills in key areas for career development, a structured values-based approach to career planning, and instruction in scholarly writing. The 80-hour program has so far been conducted twice over two academic years (1999-2001) with 18 faculty (50% women). Quantitative and qualitative methods were used in the evaluation. Program attendance was 89%. All participants completed a written academic development plan, an exercise they rated as valuable. They also completed an average of one to three manuscripts for publication. Evaluation data highlighted the critical nature of a supportive learning environment and the reasons participants chose to attend the program consistently. Key meaningful outcomes for most participants were: (1) identification of their core values; (2) a structured process of short- and long-term career planning based on these core values; (3) the development of close, collaborative relationships; (4) development of skills in such areas as gender and power issues, negotiation and conflict management, scholarly writing, and oral presentation, and (5) improved satisfaction linked to participants' decisions to remain in academic medicine. Participants developed a sense of personal transformation and empowerment. The authors conclude that collaborative mentoring offers a new approach to faculty development that addresses limitations of traditional approaches in a satisfying and cost-effective way.

Faculty Behavior and Other Key Factors in Student Adjustment to Medical School.

Physicians today need a number of non-cognitive attributes and skills in order to be maximally effective. However, these attributes and skills, such as caring and respect for others, self-awareness, and communication skills, are not always addressed in medical education. Many would-be physicians find that medical school is a grueling experience characterized by chronic stress, the need to recognize one's strengths and limitations, and dissonance between their own values and beliefs and those of the school. The faculty and administrators at one medical school developed a special extra-curricular program to render their undergraduate program more humanistic in supporting student socialization and adjustment. The program featured intentionally structured, faculty-facilitated small groups of first-year students.This study used focus group interviews to explore student perceptions of the effectiveness of the "Personal, Professional, and Leadership Development Program" and thereby to gain insight into the phenomena that affect the development of medical students as future health care providers. Findings showed that students described social support and academic support from peers and faculty as contributing to their adjustment. The most compelling factor in student adjustment was faculty behavior and attitudes. Implications for adult learning and humanistic education practices are described.