Collaborative faculty development transforms evaluation at a school of osteopathic medicine: an exploratory grounded theory study

Abstract

Background: Faculty development (FD) initiatives for medical educators must keep pace with educators’ expanding roles and responsibilities in the 21st century to effectively support and guide professional growth. Successful initiatives will be comprehensive and systematic, rather than episodic. Our research explores the impact of a collaborative, individualized, and focused FD program. The purpose of this pilot study is: (1) to describe the innovative design and implementation of the incipient FD program at University of the Incarnate Word School of Osteopathic Medicine (UIWSOM), San Antonio, Texas; and (2) to present insights from a preliminary process evaluation of the program’s initial launch to inform and facilitate broadscale implementation. Methods: We used a longitudinal, holistic approach to redesign the UIWSOM FD program to provide evidence-informed and experiential learning for faculty. We performed a process evaluation of the initial iteration of the FD program using an inductive qualitative research approach. We applied principles of constructivist grounded theory to analyze faculty’s responses collected during semi-structured interviews. Results: Three themes emerged from our analysis: communication, advocacy, and reciprocal learning. We found that effective communication, advocacy for faculty success, and reciprocal value between faculty and program developers undergirded the core concept of authentic engagement. Faculty’s perceptions of the quality of engagement of those implementing the program overshadowed the quality of the logistics. Conclusions: Our pilot study identified authentic engagement as critical to faculty’s positive experience of this new FD initiative. Practical implications for other health professions schools with similar FD initiatives include consideration of the relational aspects. Future studies should expand the process evaluation to determine key factors driving perceived program success for other skill domains and amongst clinical faculty, and include a long-range outcome evaluation of the fully implemented program.