A Survey to Understand Necessity of Administrative Training of A Medical Teacher

Abstract

Medical teacher has an indispensible role in teaching, patient care and research work. However, it is difficult to define the array of roles of a medical teacher. For the various roles, leadership, managerial and administrative skills of teachers are crucial. But usually medical teachers are not trained to enhance these skills. This survey aims to assess perception of medical teachers about their administrative and managerial skills beyond academic work, research and patient care. A questionnaire was designed, pilot-tested and administered to all faculty members (N=197). A self-administered questionnaire containing 20 items was developed on Google form. 146 responses were recorded on Google form (response rate of74 %) and analysed. The majority of the teachers' were of the opinion that there is a need to improve their individual administrative skill. However, in the absence of formal faculty administrative training programs in the college, most of the teachers indicated that their administrative skills are currently being improved through sporadic informal community of practice involving interested colleagues and modelling identified good teachers. A well-structured training to departmental administrative requirements shall have positive impact not only on academics, research and patient care but also on job satisfaction among medical teachers. This will also lead to better utilization of various resources in health sector. While setting up separate health administration department in each medical college will lead to better management of multidisciplinary challenges of healthcare. This will further decrease the administrative burden on Medical teachers.