News and Events
Faculty Focus on Fostering Teaching Skills Among Doctors
Family Medicine faculty Gregory Blake, MD, Professor and Chair; Kendra Kemmet, MD, Assistant Professor; and Anthony Wilson, MD, Associate Professor, directed a workshop on using milestones for physician faculty development at the World Conference for Family Doctors in Seoul, South Korea in October.
Faculty development for practicing physicians has been identified as an area for improvement. Just as there is high demand for physicians, there is high demand for skilled teachers of medicine. Family Medicine faculty have been working to develop metrics with specific, achievable goals for an academic career in medicine.
Dr. Kemmet said she and her colleagues wanted to develop a layout based on existing milestone guidelines for medical students and residents in core competencies outlined by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education:
- Patient Care
- Medical Knowledge
- Systems-based Practice
- Professionalism
- Practice-based Learning and Improvement
- Communication
They identified ways to develop young faculty through good mentorship from seasoned faculty and by establishing clear career trajectories. This serves to translate the abstract idea of being a good teacher to a goal oriented task with clearly outlined and attainable milestones.
Their faculty development model includes building instructional expertise, engaging in scholarly activity, developing leadership skills, networking internally and externally, and navigating the promotion process.
The 90-minute workshop in Seoul was attended by family medicine doctors from 11 countries, and the response was enthusiastic. Although the type and scope of teaching institutions differs from country to country, the need for formalized mentorship was recognized as essential to success in an academic setting.
Dr. Wilson said, “Formal mentorship has historically lacked guidelines for a clear career trajectory. With this new rubric, a well-delineated path to success is available to academic physicians of any specialty.”
Posted November 30, 2018