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Work activities of clinician-educators
J V Sheffield1, J E Wipf, D Buchwald
1Department of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, USA.
Journal of General Internal Medicine
|July 21, 1998
Summary
Clinician-educators require protected time for scholarly work. This study found they spent only 13% of their time on scholarship, with much occurring outside work hours, hindering academic contributions.
Area of Science:
- Medical Education
- Academic Medicine
- Faculty Development
Background:
- Clinician-educators are vital for medical schools' clinical and teaching missions.
- Meaningful scholarly contributions require dedicated, protected time.
- Current workloads may impede faculty from meeting scholarly expectations.
Purpose of the Study:
- To quantify the time clinician-educators dedicate to scholarship.
- To compare actual scholarship time with institutional expectations.
- To assess the proportion of scholarly work conducted outside regular work hours.
Main Methods:
- A time-motion study was conducted over two weeks.
- Forty-one clinician-educators at the University of Washington participated.
- Work activities were recorded in 30-minute intervals.
Main Results:
- The average work week was 58.7 hours.
- Scholarship accounted for only 7.6 hours (13%) of the work week.
- This was significantly less than the 20% designated time (p < .001).
- 42% of scholarly activities occurred outside the standard work week.
Conclusions:
- Clinician-educators are not allocated sufficient protected time for scholarship.
- Current time allocation hinders faculty from meeting scholarly requirements for promotion.
- Academic institutions must provide adequate time and resources for faculty scholarship.