Faculty development in medical education : A comprehensive approach

Abstract: The functioning and success of all medical universities and schools depends almost entirely on faculty members, on how well these individuals teach, the quality of the clinical services and healthcare they provide, and their contributions to scholarly activities. If faculty members are to be able to fulfill the mission and multiple roles of their institutions, besides having skills in clinical practice and healthcare delivery, they need diverse proficiencies in areas such as education and leadership. Unfortunately, they seldom develop competence in those areas during their formal training, and thus questions arise regarding what strategies are most suitable to prepare faculty members for their diverse tasks and how the performance of those professionals should be evaluated. Faculty development programs represent a highly valuable approach in this context, because they can promote the success of both individual faculty members and entire institutions. The aim of the present project was to use new and existing knowledge about faculty development to explore and enhance such activities in Iranian medicalschools. To reveal various aspects of the integrated healthcare-education context of those institutions we applied a mixed qualitative-quantitative research design. Our survey studies revealed comparatively high levels of role stress among faculty. This was most noticeable for the dimensions of role overload, inter-role distance, resource inadequacy, and role-expectation conflict where stress levels were the highest. Considering faculty rank and department, relatively lower levels were found among full professors and faculty members affiliated with basic sciences departments. To elucidate the Iranian faculty development system, we devised an instrument that used a new and broader approach to assessment of faculty development activities. This tool could guide administrators in their efforts to construct and identify effective faculty development programs and also to map the existing situation. Using this instrument, we evaluated managerial and pedagogical aspects of faculty development to help administrators understand faculty and program requirements, and this work identified strategies that could improve faculty productivity in Iranian medical schools. The success of any faculty development initiative depends on several key factors: identification of the specific needs of faculty members, early involvement of faculty, introduction of programs such as faculty-oriented partnership, and securing the continuity of programs. Above all, faculty development is a necessary corollary to faculty evaluation. We investigated faculty evaluation systems with the aim of achieving comprehensive faculty development. We adapted the Personnel Evaluation Standards checklist to fit the context of Iranian medical universities, which gave us an instrument that could address the diverse roles give of the faculty members. Our results demonstrate that the four principles of utility, feasibility, propriety, and accuracy were occasionally or frequently met in all of the faculty members roles. Mean scores were highest for evaluation of teaching and research, and they were lowest for clinical and healthcare services, institutional administration, and self-development. Although faculty evaluation and faculty development should be two sidesof the same coin, our most striking observation was dissociation between those two systems. Despite the merging of two major missions (medical education and provision of healthcare) in Iranian medical universities, a challenge remains because some components of the organizations have not actually been completely integrated. We hope that the findings of our studies will further encourage medical universities in general and medical schools in particular, to give faculty development a central role in the strategic planning, management, and leadership of those institutions.