Health Educators and Academic Leaders: A Developmental, Principles-Focused Program Evaluation Approach for Aspiring...

Background Aspiring clinician educators (CEs) need formal training and community as they transition into academic roles. To address this, we launched the Health Educators and Academic Leaders (HEAL) program at our institution in 2021, integrating communities of practice (CoP) principles and innovative curricular design. Objective To report HEAL outcomes using a principles-focused program evaluation approach. Methods HEAL's curriculum was guided by the Kern 6-step approach and incorporated seminars, reflective teaching portfolios, mentorship, video-based coaching (VBC), and the Clinician Educator Self-Assessment Toolkit (CESAT). This 2-year program centered on 3 principles: CoP; reflective practice; and use of innovative curricula, like CE milestones. From 2021 to 2023, a mixed-methods, developmental evaluation informed the iterative refinements, emphasizing evolving principles over fixed outcomes. Data were collected from trainees via de-identified surveys and focus groups. Results Postgraduate trainees from 9 disciplines joined the inaugural HEAL cohort, with a 92.9% (13 of 14) completion rate. Seventy percent of HEAL trainees in the first year (7 of 10) ranked VBC sessions as the most valuable curricular component, while 80% (8 of 10) ranked the CESAT tool as least valuable. Qualitative feedback emphasized the value of real-time, individualized feedback and challenges with milestone-based self-evaluation tools. Eighty-nine percent (8 of 9) of HEAL trainees in the second year reported improved confidence as CEs. Conclusions By centering educational strategies on principles essential to CE development, including CoP, HEAL's developmental evaluation approach has sustained 5 years of curricular innovation and increased the confidence of CE graduates.