Exploring faculty self-assessment on Clinician Educator Milestones: insights from a multi-institutional study

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Academic Medicine
• Faculty Development

Background:

• Clinician educators are vital to academic medicine.
• Understanding their self-assessed teaching competencies is limited.
• The Clinical Educator Milestones (CEMs) framework exists but its use and relevance are underexplored.

Purpose of the Study:

• Evaluate clinician educators' self-reported performance on the CEMs.
• Examine performance differences by career level, specialty, and experience.
• Inform faculty development by identifying perceived strengths and gaps.

Main Methods:

• 484 clinician educators from 9 US academic institutions completed a self-assessment.
• Performance was rated on a 1-5 scale across 4 pillars and 11 competencies.
• Descriptive statistics and mean difference tests analyzed variations.

Main Results:

• Respondents rated themselves highest in commitment to professional responsibilities (4.30) and teaching (3.96).
• Lowest self-ratings were in medical education scholarship (3.11), program evaluation (3.33), and science of learning (3.43).
• Significant differences in self-assessment were found based on clinical experience, teaching experience, and academic rank.

Conclusions:

• Clinician educators show self-perceived strengths in teaching and professionalism, with notable gaps in scholarship and learning science.
• Awareness and utilization of the CEMs framework appear limited.
• The CEMs can structure faculty development and identify institutional needs for targeted support.