Commentary: using medical student case presentations to help faculty learn to be better advisers

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Clinical Scholarship
• Faculty Development

Background:

• Traditional case presentations are common in clinical medicine but less so for discussing challenging student cases in medical education.
• Faculty often lack structured opportunities to share best practices for advising medical students.
• The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine's Colleges Advisory Program (CAP) developed a novel approach to address this gap.

Discussion:

• The Advisory Case Conference provides a confidential forum for faculty advisors to discuss challenging student cases.
• This method incorporates literature reviews and small group discussions, including role-playing, to enhance advising skills.
• The program emphasizes adult learning principles and shared responsibility between advisor and advisee.

Key Insights:

• A structured Advisory Case Conference can improve faculty advising skills.
• Sharing challenging student cases fosters professional development among medical educators.
• The CAP model offers a replicable strategy for other institutions to enhance student support.

Outlook:

• This innovative model can be adapted by other medical schools and training programs.
• Enhancing faculty advising skills is crucial for medical student personal and professional development.
• Further exploration of such collaborative faculty development initiatives is warranted.