Development of an Academic Professional Behaviors Assessment for Health Professions Faculty

An important component in educating health professionals is developing professional behaviors, which includes appropriate modeling by faculty. The purposes of this study were to: 1) determine examples of behaviors that faculty identify as important in measuring professional behaviors in themselves and colleagues, and 2) develop a tool that could be used in self- and peer-assessment for faculty.

Part I of this two-part study was a survey to determine which behaviors are considered valuable in seven categories of professional behaviors. Part II surveyed 113 faculty members across seven disciplines in one College of Health Professions to rank behaviors identified in Part I. Behaviors scored more than 2 SD below the mean were eliminated, and one-way ANOVA calculations were used to assess differences in rankings between professions.

In Part I, 95 of 154 total behaviors were identified as most important at the end of round one; in round two, that number was reduced to 54. In Part II, 46 of the 54 behaviors were ranked as most important with no significant differences among programs. The Academic Faculty Professional Behavior Assessment was developed from these behaviors.

Results of this study led to the development of an assessment tool which can be used across various health professions faculty.