Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges
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During the last decade academic medical centers (AMCs) have hired large numbers of clinician-educators to teach and provide clinical care. However, these clinician-educators often do not advance in academic rank, since excellence in clinical care and teaching alone is not adequate justification for advancement. ⋯ Further, they recommend the development of a new faculty position, a "clinician-educator researcher," to foster the scholarship of discovery in medical education and clinical practice. Investments in clinician-educator researchers will ultimately help AMCs to achieve their threefold mission-excellence in patient care, teaching, and research.
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Scholarly activity and scholarly productivity are key features of the academic health center (AHC) and the work of college of medicine faculty. Recent changes in the academic environment of the University of Kentucky (UK) College of Medicine led to an examination of its appointment, promotion, and tenure procedures. ⋯ The authors describe some of the new procedures being implemented to address these challenges; these include new faculty designations, clearer articulation of promotion procedures, explicit recognition of multiple forms of scholarship, expectations for investment in junior faculty, and mandatory discussion of faculty success in chairs' annual reviews. Faculty reactions, positive and negative, to these changes in procedures are also presented.
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Since the late 1980s faculty and staff at the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) have actively sought to align their school's academic culture and promotional process with its mission of educational excellence and innovation. As one of the top 50 medical schools receiving NIH funds, MCW has well-established mechanisms to evaluate and recognize the scholarship of discovery. Understanding, evaluating, and recognizing the value of individuals engaged in the scholarship of teaching, however, required changes in individuals' beliefs and in the MCW's promotion processes and organizational infrastructure. ⋯ Retrospectively, this strategy was consistent with John Kotter's eight-step change model, which the authors apply as an organizing framework for this case report of educational evolution at the MCW. Through creating a guiding coalition, developing vision and strategy, generating short-term wins, and anchoring new approaches in the MCW's culture, the MCW has made substantive progress in recognizing and rewarding educational scholarship. Changing academic cultures to value education is itself an educational process, requiring persistence and the ability to teach others about educational scholarship and its associated criteria.