Abstract
BackgroundAt well-established academic university settings, retaining faculty remains a pressing challenge due to competing market forces, decreasing institutional support, and changing personal expectations. There is a paucity of information about the difficulties faced by new medical schools to maintain their academic workforce.The objective of this study was to determine the challenges facing the faculty at a newly developed medical school.MethodsTwelve founding faculty were surveyed anonymously by a 32-item questionnaire. Their responses were independently analyzed by three researchers.ResultsThe views of the faculty were categorized into in four inter-related themes: personal, support, institutional, and environmental. The constant sources of satisfaction among faculty were higher academic rank (75%), harmonious inter-collegial relationships (74%), healthy pecuniary rewards (58%), better professional growth (58%) along with greater autonomy, administrative independence, minimum groupism and excellent team work. Poor opportunities for promotion (68%), reduced support for scholarly activities (67%) and unsatisfactory support from the administration (55%) were detrimental to retaining faculty.ConclusionBy addressing specific issues facing its staff, every new medical school will not only manage to retain its academic faculty but also be able to attract well qualified academic staff from established medical institutions worldwide.
Highlights
At well-established academic university settings, retaining faculty remains a pressing challenge due to competing market forces, decreasing institutional support, and changing personal expectations
Medical faculty, physicians and scientists remain the cornerstone of any academic medical institution
The responses were grouped into the following inter-related categories: 1) Personal: monetary and health, 2) Support: administration and leadership 3) Institutional: promotion and retention and 4) Environment: regional and societal
Summary
At well-established academic university settings, retaining faculty remains a pressing challenge due to competing market forces, decreasing institutional support, and changing personal expectations. There is a paucity of information about the difficulties faced by new medical schools to maintain their academic workforce. The objective of this study was to determine the challenges facing the faculty at a newly developed medical school. Physicians and scientists remain the cornerstone of any academic medical institution. Experts recommend exploring the challenges involving faculty retention and implementing professional programs to resolve them [1]. Medical schools face significant financial losses due to faculty attrition; for example, the average cost of replacing a generalist can amount up to $115,554 while the cost of replacing a specialist may add up to a whopping $286,503 [2]. The cost of losing faculty for any organization is considerable
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