Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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Mentorship has been shown to have a positive impact on academic faculty members in terms of career advancement. The guidance of a mentor has been shown to increase academic outcome measures such as peer-reviewed publications and grant support for junior academic faculty. ⋯ This group has also been reported to have a lower scholarly productivity rate than the typical research-based faculty. This article addresses the current state of mentorship as it applies specifically to clinician-educators, offers advice on how a potential protégé might seek out a potential mentor, and finally, suggests a possible mentoring system for academic emergency physicians who are focusing on careers in medical education.
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Evidence-based medicine (EBM) is the rubric for an approach to learning and practicing medicine that applies skills from clinical epidemiology, library science, and information management to clinical practice. Teaching EBM effectively requires a longitudinal approach throughout medical education. This presents many opportunities for academic emergency physicians, especially in the setting of an emergency medicine clerkship. ⋯ Bedside teaching of EBM also requires ready access to modern information resources. Other venues for teaching EBM include morning report, teaching conferences, and journal clubs. Many tools can be used to aid the process, including Web-based sources such as UpToDate, textbooks, and Web-based tutorials, educational prescriptions, and critically appraised topics.
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Mentoring is an important aspect of career development for medical students, residents, and junior faculty. It is vital to the professional growth and maturation of individuals early in each phase of their careers. Additionally, mentoring has a critical role throughout all career stages, because the mentor-mentee relationship provides mutual benefit to both participants. ⋯ In contrast to role models, mentors play an active part in the development of a young physician's career. This difference will be discussed. Finally, this article will describe the responsibilities of career guidance and recommendation letter authorship that mentors assume for medical students.
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The emergency department provides a rich environment for diverse patient encounters, rapid clinical decision making, and opportunities to hone procedural skills. Well-prepared faculty can utilize this environment to teach residents and medical students and gain institutional recognition for their incomparable role and teamwork. Giving effective feedback is an essential skill for all teaching faculty. ⋯ Specific examples of redirection and reflection are offered, and pitfalls are reviewed. Suggestions for streamlining verbal and written feedback and obtaining feedback from others in a fast-paced environment are given. Ideas for further individual and group faculty development are presented.
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Review Comparative Study
Information technology principles for management, reporting, and research.
Information technology holds the promise to enhance the ability of individuals and organizations to manage emergency departments, improve data sharing and reporting, and facilitate research. The Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM) Consensus Committee has identified nine principles to outline a path of optimal features and designs for current and future information technology systems. The principles roughly summarized include the following: utilize open database standards with clear data dictionaries, provide administrative access to necessary data, appoint and recognize individuals with emergency department informatics expertise, allow automated alert and proper identification for enrollment of cases into research, provide visual and statistical tools and training to analyze data, embed automated configurable alarm functionality for clinical and nonclinical systems, allow multiexport standard and format configurable reporting, strategically acquire mission-critical equipment that is networked and capable of automated feedback regarding functional status and location, and dedicate resources toward informatics research and development. The SAEM Consensus Committee concludes that the diligent application of these principles will enhance emergency department management, reporting, and research and ultimately improve the quality of delivered health care.