Promoting Faculty Scholarship - An evaluation of a program for busy clinician-educators.

BACKGROUND: Clinician educators face barriers to scholarship including lack of time, insufficient skills, and access to mentoring. An urban department of family medicine implemented a federally funded Scholars Program to increase the participants' perceived confidence, knowledge and skills to conduct educational research. METHOD: A part-time faculty development model provided modest protected time for one year to busy clinician educators. Scholars focused on designing, implementing, and writing about a scholarly project. Scholars participated in skill seminars, cohort and individual meetings, an educational poster fair and an annual writing retreat with consultation from a visiting professor. We assessed the increases in the quantity and quality of peer reviewed education scholarship. Data included pre- and post-program self-assessed research skills and confidence and semi-structured interviews. Further, data were collected longitudinally through a survey conducted three years after program participation to assess continued involvement in educational scholarship, academic presentations and publications. RESULTS: Ten scholars completed the program. Scholars reported that protected time, coaching by a coordinator, peer mentoring, engagement of project leaders, and involvement of a visiting professor increased confidence and ability to apply research skills. Participation resulted in academic presentations and publications and new educational leadership positions for several of the participants. CONCLUSIONS: A faculty scholars program emphasizing multi-level mentoring and focused protected time can result in increased confidence, skills and scholarly outcomes at modest cost.

Learning social medicine in the Bronx: an orientation for primary care residents.

BACKGROUND: Primary care educators face the challenge of teaching the social context of health and disease to clinicians. DESCRIPTION: Since 1975, the Residency Program in Social Medicine has trained clinicians to practice in urban underserved communities. During Orientation Month, 1st-year residents are relieved of inpatient duties and participate in learning activities addressing social and cultural aspects of health. Learning objectives include understanding patients' social context, their community, and the role of physicians as professionals. Recent innovations include incorporating an overall theme, weekly case studies, "triple jump" exercises, community mapping projects, patient-led community tours, and theme-specific visits to community institutions (e.g., prisons). EVALUATION: Residents complete weekly formative evaluations, a summative evaluation, and narrative reflections. Faculty complete an evaluative questionnaire. CONCLUSIONS: Orientation is a highly rated and valued part of our curriculum. Its success derives from ongoing curricular innovation and evolution, a departmental commitment to social medicine, and positive community response to our learners' interest and energy.