Faculty Development Provided During Work Hours: A Mixed-Methods Pilot Study for Developing Clinician Educators

Faculty development is important but often limited by conflict with ongoing responsibilities. The Oregon Health & Science University Department of Anesthesiology & Perioperative Medicine schedules more faculty physicians to work on Wednesdays, with nonclinical time in the morning and a clinical assignment in the afternoon, to facilitate a resident physician academic half-day (AHD). We designed a novel faculty development course to run in the mornings of the AHD using Kern's 6-step approach to curriculum development and hypothesized that it would be feasible and satisfactory.

A needs assessment was performed. Two experts in medical education developed the curriculum and sought faculty with medical education training to lead sessions. Five participants completed pre-intervention, daily session, and post-intervention surveys. Satisfaction was evaluated by surveys. Feasibility was evaluated by session attendance and surveys. Kirkpatrick's model for program evaluation was used, and a thematic analysis was performed.

All participants responded "Strongly Agree" to all participant satisfaction post-intervention questions. All participants were able to meet the >50% attendance goal, only missing sessions when pre-call, post-call, on vacation, or ill. All participants reported changes in behavior and reported developing their clinician educator professional identities. One participant reported re-affirming their commitment to academic medicine.

This faculty development pilot course provided during work hours was feasible, and participants were highly satisfied. In addition, thematic analysis suggests that the course helped faculty develop a clinician educator professional identity and changed their behavior. Future work will include a qualitative study to understand the impact on participant behavior and professional identity formation.