Participation of volunteer faculty members in education research projects

Physicians in private practice who are also volunteer clinical faculty members are a recognized resource for teaching and patient care at teaching hospitals. Clinical faculty members have seldom been included in education research despite the frequent complaint from community practitioners that the results from studies at teaching hospitals are not applicable to community practice. The authors report on a study involving volunteer clinical faculty members in a randomized education trial to improve patients' everyday functioning. Seventy-six clinical faculty physicians in office practice of internal medicine participated. At the end of the study the physician participants were asked to complete an evaluation questionnaire concerning the appropriateness of clinical faculty members' participation in such research projects. Ninety-five percent said the experiment was appropriate, and 88 percent would participate again.