A Ten-year Program Evaluation of an Emergency Medicine Scholarly Track in Education Using a Qualitative Approach.

Abstract

Residency scholarly tracks have allowed training programs to better prepare residents for a future in academia. Despite their success, however, few evaluations of these scholarly tracks have been completed to ensure they are meeting the goals of their stakeholders. The objective was to evaluate the education scholarly track at Northwestern University Emergency Medicine by querying key stakeholders on the current state of the track and its ideal state. Current emergency medicine residents, faculty, and track alumni were identified as essential stakeholders. Their perspectives on the track were elicited with a focus group and online survey, respectively, and responses were analyzed using grounded theory. Four distinct themes emerged from the analysis as critical to the track: "education skills and learning theory," "education research methodology," "leadership," and "collaboration." These themes will be used to inform further development of the track. A similar self-reflection process may benefit other programs with scholarly tracks.