Program-Centered Education: A New Model for Faculty Development

Abstract

Background: We describe a program-focused faculty development model that has been implemented across 7 family medicine residency programs. Description: The South Carolina Faculty Development Initiative (SCFDI) targets residency program faculty as a group. The SCFDI assesses training needs of the target faculty through the use of qualitative and quantitative information obtained from faculty, residents, and staff of each residency. Internal comparisons of faculty, resident and staff views, coupled with comparisons across residencies, are used to develop each program's curriculum. A longitudinal series of faculty development workshops is conducted at the program's facility, with all faculty participating simultaneously. Evaluation: The 34 workshops presented involved 90% of the eligible faculty. Attendees ranked presentations highly for quality, scholarship, applicability to faculty role, as well as usefulness to themselves and their program. Conclusions: A program-specific model of faculty development, with instruction provided on-site, is both feasible and acceptable to family medicine faculty. This model, which focuses on the needs of a faculty group rather than those of individual faculty members, may be more affordable and effective for a larger number of faculty than more traditional fellowship models.