An Innovative Model for Graduate Medical Education Faculty Development Through Physician-in-Training Delivery

Faculty development is a core requirement for Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME)-accredited residency programs. Successfully delivering content to faculty can be challenging. This pilot study aimed to assess expert-developed sessions delivered by resident physicians to faculty at the completion of their clinical rotations.

A prospective cohort project was conducted, involving precepting faculty and resident physicians in a dermatology residency program. Each resident, at the end of their rotation, delivered a faculty development program to their attending physician. Each resident participated in the program for 1-3 years. The faculty development programs were based on faculty development programs developed by various academic centers, including HCA Healthcare, Mayo Clinic, and the University of Toronto. The primary endpoint of this project was faculty participation in the faculty development session. Secondary endpoints were participation status by faculty or residents' personal characteristics. Residents documented attendance and the topic of each presentation. This data was used to assess faculty participation, the number of presentations delivered, and the topics covered during faculty development sessions. Descriptive statistics were used for data analysis.

Over 60 months, 8 dermatology residents delivered 86 presentations to 19 faculty members with 93.2% faculty participation. The topics covered included teaching during the COVID-19 era, faculty wellness, case-based collaborative learning, burnout, precepting, and depression. This initiative successfully recruited faculty members who had not previously participated in any faculty development programs.

This model of resident physician-delivered faculty development content successfully addressed barriers in recruiting faculty for participation, which may have been facilitated through relationships formed during rotations, between the residents and attending physicians. Further research is recommended to validate the effectiveness of the model in diverse settings and explore its impact on faculty development outcomes and medical education quality. This model has the potential to improve participation in graduate medical education faculty development programs.