Journal of dental education
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This report describes the implementation and evaluation of the Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center Dental Faculty Development Program (DFDP) for fifteen participants: five advanced dental education faculty members and ten residents. The 100-hour DFDP, designed in the longitudinal immersion model for faculty development, was conducted in four phases at the Bronx-Lebanon Department of Dentistry in the Bronx, New York, in 2010-11. The DFDP was implemented to help underrepresented minority (URM) dental residents and clinical faculty members develop skills necessary for academic careers and enhanced teaching effectiveness. ⋯ The participant ratings for overall DFDP implementation and for twenty-four topical sessions were uniformly positive. The faculty and resident participants in this year-long faculty development initiative at an advanced dental education program with a high URM representation demonstrated enhanced knowledge and confidence and provided positive program evaluations. This report also describes curricular and assessment enhancements for subsequent years of the DFDP based on the first-year outcomes.
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Dental schools are facing substantial financial challenges and a shortage of faculty members. One solution to address these issues has been to hire "shared" faculty members, i.e., faculty members whose primary appointment is at one institution who are hired by another institution to teach a course or part of a course. This is a controversial concept. ⋯ Many of the disadvantages could be potentially minimized by stakeholders' working together to develop collaborative arrangements. Networks could be developed in which institutions coordinate hiring of shared faculty members based on what expertise is needed. Financial challenges and shortages of faculty members are unlikely to be resolved in the near future, but use of shared faculty members is one promising approach to begin to meet these challenges.