Faculty Development Opportunities Research Articles

Utilizing the Modified OMP Model for Health Equity in a Family Medicine Residency Clinic

Background Racial and ethnically diverse communities have higher mortality rates from chronic diseases. One approach to address health disparities and systemic racism in health care is through alterations in primary care workforce development via the One-Minute Preceptor (OMP) Teaching Method. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill created a modified OMP Model for Health Equity to address racial health disparities while teaching. This quality improvement (QI) project focuses on faculty confidence in discussing racial health disparities with learners using the modified OMP Model. Methods The QI project used a Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) framework. Faculty participated in the Awareness, Reflection/Empowerment, and Action (AREA) survey, to assess level of engagement in addressing health disparities. Family Medicine (FM) residents completed a survey on current precepting practices of ethno-racial health disparities. Faculty were introduced to the modified OMP, followed by a two-month intervention period. Post-intervention surveys assessed the impact and identified faculty development opportunities. The intervention took place within a Family Medicine Residency Program, specifically during outpatient continuity clinics and the inpatient Family Medicine Hospital Service. Results Faculty engagement increased in areas of awareness and action and decreased in reflection/empowerment. Residents reported higher satisfaction with Ethno-Racial health disparities clinical teaching after the intervention. Qualitative data suggests discussions are not occurring as often as residents desire and depend on different factors; race/ethnicity of the patient, clinical situation, social determinants of health impacting care, time, and preceptor. Discussion The modified OMP for Health Equity intervention can be used to increase awareness and promote self-reflection and change. Conclusion The PDSA cycle framework for an intervention can improve faculty engagement addressing Ethnic-Racial health disparities.

Faculty Turnover: It's Preventable

Faculty Turnover: It's Preventable

Strengthening online teaching capability: Medical and health sciences faculty development

Educational institutions have experienced a rapid pivot to online learning over the last two years due to global COVID-19 pandemic conditions. Historically, in moving to online teaching, research has found that educators experience varying degrees of success with key challenges being: time pressure; staff shortages; insufficient technical ability; technical difficulties; and lack of faculty development (FD) opportunities (Aghakhani & Shalbafan, 2020; McQuiggan, 2007; Nimrod, 2018; Rajab et al., 2020). These challenges are exacerbated in the current climate and, despite being in our third year of teaching and learning under ongoing pandemic constraints, there is still a paucity of literature around how faculty have been supported in their provision of online teaching initiatives (Daniel et al., 2021). Our research aimed to identify features and enablers that staff value to strengthen their online teaching capability. Additionally, we intended to determine gaps in and future directions for strengthening staff online teaching capability, with a view to affecting change at an institutional level in addition to improving outcomes for students. To do this we used The Kirkpatrick Model as modified by Steinert et al. (2006) to evaluate FD initiatives and outcomes at the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences at New Zealand’s leading university, The University of Auckland. We conducted a mixed methods study comprising five datasets: interactive learning (in H5P) FD workshop surveys (1); teaching staff surveys (2) and interviews (3); student Summative Evaluation Tool (SET) surveys (4); and assignment grades (5). The FD workshop exit surveys (1) found that staff (n=105) valued personalised support and active learning. Teaching staff (n=86) surveys (2) showed that staff place high value on their Community of Practice (CoP) (Lave & Wenger, 1991), which were seen to provide personalised, technical, and emotional support. Similarly, findings from interviews (3) indicated that staff (n=20) appreciated FD that was personalised, interactive, timely, and they were overwhelmingly grateful for support from colleagues. Some key areas were identified as needing further FD by staff: fostering online relationships and engagement, and teaching in culturally sustaining and universally accessible ways. There was also a strong belief that university management should support professional development by allocating time and resources to FD in online teaching. Using SET data (4) from 2018 to 2021, we determined that providing students (n=809) with online interactive resources was a key support for their learning. During this time, the grade mean for a student assignment, that was purposely redeveloped for online learning using H5P to facilitate interaction and engagement, increased significantly from 2018 to 2019 (9%, p<.001). FD in interactive learning using H5P, driven by early adopter teaching staff, resulted in creating content associated with a mean increase in assignment grades (level 4B - Change among the participants’ students or colleagues [Steinert et al., 2006]), and the provision of an institutional licence (level 4A - Change in the system/organisational practice [Steinert et al., 2006]). The CoP approach ensured that personal connections were at the fore of FD and enabled effective modelling of pedagogical choices for interactive online learning. Providing personalized, just-in-time support through a CoP approach, interactive online teaching capability was improved, and institutional change was affected.

Evaluating Pharmacy Faculty’s Awareness of Teaching and Learning Myths and Misconceptions

Objective. To assess pharmacy faculty's knowledge of prominent and prevalent teaching and learning myths and misconceptions and evidence-based strategies prior to training.Methods. Participants completed a baseline assessment containing 16 true-false knowledge questions about teaching and learning misconceptions (10) and myths (six), one open-ended application question, and four participant demographic questions including years of experience in pharmacy academia, the focus of their institution (teaching or research), the number of education meetings attended, and whether they had formal training in education. After completing the baseline assessment of the top 16 misconceptions and myths, faculty were trained on the top 10 evidence-based teaching and learning strategies. At session completion, faculty were provided the assessment answers and scored their original responses.Results. Results from the survey revealed that most responders (56%) had been in academics between one and 10 years and attended two to 10 education meetings (62%). The majority of participants worked at teaching-intensive universities (56%), and most had no formal training in teaching (65%). The average score on the assessment was 43% for the myths section versus 70% for the misconceptions section. Faculty participants were overconfident in their predictions (predicted=74%, actual=60%). Faculty demographics did not influence the assessment scores.Conclusion. Pharmacy faculty may not know which teaching and learning strategies are evidence based and which are myths or misconceptions. In addition, they are likely to be overconfident in their knowledge of this evidence. This provides opportunity for faculty development in these areas.

A National Qualitative Study of Work-Life Balance in Prelicensure Nursing Faculty.

This study explored how full-time, prelicensure baccalaureate nursing faculty members described their experiences with work-life balance. With increasing shortages of nursing faculty and practicing nurses, schools of nursing are developing faculty recruitment and retention efforts. It is imperative to understand the experiences of nursing faculty with regard to balancing their work and personal lives. A web-based survey including two open-ended questions related to work-life balance was disseminated to deans of nursing programs, who disseminated the survey to nursing faculty. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data. The sample (n = 320) was representative of current nursing faculty demographics. Three themes emerged: Relationship With Administration, Nursing Faculty Workload, and Boundary Setting. Opposing subthemes were noted in each theme. Administrators may use the findings from this study to create administrator and faculty development opportunities and mentorship programs that promote work-life balance of nursing faculty.

Understanding the Challenges of Teaching Writing Online during the Pandemicat an Urban Community College


 
 
 The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has led to unprecedented changes to higher education and left particularly damaging effects for the underprivileged population. Colleges suddenly shifted into online modality in March 2020, forcing both students and faculty to quickly adapt to the new learning environment. While much of the recent literature has focused on the challenges from the student perspectives (Black et al 2020; Malik, 2020), there has been little insight as to how Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI) faculty are dealing with the challenges. The purpose of this study is to better understand the impact this major shift has had on the challenges faculty faced in this process. To examine how our faculty rapidly adapted to teaching in distance learning modality, we analyzed a faculty survey conducted by the Writing Across the Curriculum program in Fall 2020. Eighty-six faculty members participated in a survey about pedagogical applications and concerns including responses to two open-ended questions. In response to the study, the recommendation is to expand professional development opportunities for faculty regarding online pedagogy that is systematically integrated into pedagogy in general.
 
 

Diversifying the genomic data science research community.

Over the past 20 years, the explosion of genomic data collection and the cloud computing revolution have made computational and data science research accessible to anyone with a web browser and an internet connection. However, students at institutions with limited resources have received relatively little exposure to curricula or professional development opportunities that lead to careers in genomic data science. To broaden participation in genomics research, the scientific community needs to support these programs in local education and research at underserved institutions (UIs). These include community colleges, historically Black colleges and universities, Hispanic-serving institutions, and tribal colleges and universities that support ethnically, racially, and socioeconomically underrepresented students in the United States. We have formed the Genomic Data Science Community Network to support students, faculty, and their networks to identify opportunities and broaden access to genomic data science. These opportunities include expanding access to infrastructure and data, providing UI faculty development opportunities, strengthening collaborations among faculty, recognizing UI teaching and research excellence, fostering student awareness, developing modular and open-source resources, expanding course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs), building curriculum, supporting student professional development and research, and removing financial barriers through funding programs and collaborator support.

Executive MBA (EMBA) Degree–Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Certificate Integrated Program at the University of Rochester: A Pathway to Earn a Specialized Finance Degree During Residency Training

Executive MBA (EMBA) Degree–Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Certificate Integrated Program at the University of Rochester: A Pathway to Earn a Specialized Finance Degree During Residency Training

Reimagining Faculty Development Deployment: A Multipronged, Pragmatic Approach to Improve Engagement.

Faculty at academic health centers have many competing demands on their time, leading to high work stress, burnout, and limited capacity to meaningfully improve their teaching, evaluation, feedback, and other education-related skills. Faculty development provides a useful mechanism to assist faculty in enhancing their knowledge and skills in these areas, but engaging faculty can be a challenge. To promote engagement, the authors developed a multipronged, pragmatic approach to faculty development. They created: (1) brief videos leveraging micro-learning strategies; (2) prepackaged workshops for use during existing faculty meetings; (3) a newsletter to raise awareness of faculty development opportunities; (4) a searchable, web-based catalog to facilitate rapid retrieval of faculty development content; and (5) an academy to acknowledge engagement of individual faculty members, provide certificates, and promote a culture that prioritizes our education mission. Since they launched the new approach in 2017, they have developed 41 microlearning videos, 15 prepackaged workshops, and 24 issues of the newsletter. Between January 2017 and May 2021, the videos generated more than 150,055 views; the workshops were downloaded 2,850 times; and the issues of the newsletter, emailed bimonthly to 3,500 members of the faculty, had an open rate that increased from 30% in 2017 to 70% in 2021. The Academy of Educational Excellence, which was launched in 2018, grew to more than 490 members. Preliminary feedback suggests faculty and education leaders are highly satisfied with the faculty development resources and approaches to engagement. Next steps include obtaining more user satisfaction data and evaluating whether education-related knowledge and skills have improved among faculty participants.

\u201cIt\u2019s okay to not know \u2026\u201d a qualitative exploration of faculty approaches to working with uncertainty

BackgroundWhilst it is recognised that a capacity to manage uncertainty is an essential aspect of working as a healthcare professional, there is little clear guidance on how to facilitate student learning in this domain. A lack of faculty development opportunities also suggests that health professions’ educators may feel ill-equipped to assist students in developing effective approaches to uncertainty. The purpose of this study was to explore a faculty development intervention designed to help educators unpack students’ experiences of uncertainty, and identify attributes which may help students to manage uncertain situations.MethodsThis qualitative study was informed by a constructivist methodological approach, where participants were encouraged to share meaning around the nature of uncertainty in health professions’ education. Two 90-min faculty development sessions were held. These sessions invited participants to apply Han et al.’s taxonomy of uncertainty to role-played scenarios of student uncertainty within a focus group setting. Focus group data were collected, and examined using a two-stage, hybrid approach of deductive and inductive thematic analysis.ResultsHan et al.’s taxonomy helped participants to identify multiple sources and issues of uncertainty in the role played scenarios, thus unveiling the extent of uncertainties encountered by health professions’ learners. Data analysis revealed four themes overall: “Sources of uncertainty”, “Issues of uncertainty”, “Uncertainty attributes”, and “Learning environment.” Participants also contributed to a list of attributes which they considered helpful to undergraduate health professions’ students in managing uncertain situations. These included an awareness of the nature of uncertainty within healthcare practice, an ability to recognise uncertainty, and adopting attitudes of adaptability, positivity, and resilience.ConclusionsThis study highlights the successful use of Han et al.’s taxonomy of uncertainty within a faculty development setting. Our findings suggest that the taxonomy is a practical and versatile tool that health professions’ educators can use in shared reflections and conversations around uncertainty with students or colleagues.

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Future of Nursing Education.

Nursing is the largest health profession, with nearly 4 million providers practicing across acute, primary, and public health care settings. In response to the pandemic, nursing schools halted on-site course delivery and redesigned programs to attenuate risks to students and faculty. Key challenges faced by schools included financial cutbacks, rapid increases in online learning technology, maintaining student academic progression, disruption to clinical learning opportunities, and meeting accreditation standards, while addressing the stress and loss experienced by faculty, staff, and students. Despite challenges, nursing organizations provided guidance for decision making, new learning resources, and faculty development opportunities. Schools of nursing leveraged their resources to redesign nursing curricula, strengthen partnerships for student clinical experiences, and address needs of the community.Nursing education will look different from its prepandemic profile in the future. Lessons learned during the pandemic point to gaps in nursing education, particularly related to disaster and public health preparedness, health equity, and technology. The American Association of Colleges of Nursing’s new Essentials—standards for professional nursing education—were finalized during the pandemic and reflect these lessons. The need for nurse scientists to conduct emergency response research was made evident. The importance of strong academic–practice partnerships was highlighted for rapid communication, flexibility, and responses to dynamic environments. For the future, nursing education and practice must collaborate to ensure that students and practicing nurses are prepared to address emergencies and pandemics, as well as the needs of vulnerable populations.

Computer discourse and use as determinants of student math outcomes: performativity and action at work in the lower school grades

There exists a tension between discussing the use of computers in the lower grade math curriculum and computer use outcomes, as achievement results fall behind the talk of use. Purpose: The purpose of this research was to explore this proposition on a large scale limited to a United States context. To that end, two studies emerged. Methods: In the first study, a large corpus of articles encouraging computer use from Teaching Children Mathematics was used to explore talk about how to use computers in the classroom using a content analysis method. The second study used weighted sample survey methods with corrections and jackknife replications for ANOVA tests to determine whether there were statistically significant differences between exposure time to computers during 4th grade math and standardized test scores on the TIMSS math knowledge and application subtests generalized to the United States population of students. Results: The results of the first study indicated that computer use talk fell under the domains of geometry, graphing functions, and base ten blocks. The second study indicated non-significant results on both tests, which was interpreted as a valuable finding. Conclusions: Several conclusions emerged for these studies. The most poignant ones included that common core standards do not require or mention technology use in obtaining math objectives in the 4th grade. It is concluded that the TIMSS survey results suggest that some of the findings might be due to lack of availability of computers for students and professional development opportunities for faculty. It is also concluded that there is a continuity between the recent 2000s and the use of computers in the lower grades during COVID-19, where reports show learning losses, despite talk of it as a teaching method.

Using Inquiry in Professional Development for Faculty in Mathematics

In this paper, we invite the reader to think deeply about professional development opportunities for faculty. The focus of this professional development is to improve teaching and learning by including more inquiry in the mathematics classroom. Building on theories of teaching and learning, we develop the idea of “teaching procedures” and “teaching concepts” and think about implications for professional development. We then use our personal stories to illustrate that our beliefs and attitudes matter when we want to improve our teaching. Bringing both of these perspectives together, we showcase activities we created for inquiry-based learning (IBL) workshops for faculty. Finally we discuss feedback received from workshop participants.

COVID-19: A MOTIVATOR FOR CHANGE IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION?

Despite recent research and initiatives, learner-centered instructional practices have not made their way into post-secondary Science, Technology,Engineering and Math (STEM) classrooms, even though there is clear evidence showing the benefits include increased grades, higher student engagement, and deeper learning. STEM educators rank the barriers associated with active learning higher than their colleagues in other disciplines, and identify the inability to cover all the content as a key factor in their decision to adhere to didactic practices. Insights and instructional strategies and methods garnered from teaching-related faculty development opportunities are often tried, but their use is not generally sustained unless a personal experiencedrives that change in practice. Unquestionably, COVID-19 has had an immediate, global impact on higher education. Educators have been forced to alter their teaching practices to accommodate the switch to remote learning. Most Teaching and Learning Centers offered myriad workshops to facilitate this change. This quantitative study set out to determine if COVID-19 precautions created the personal experience necessary to initiate a change in STEM teaching practices. Using educator-related threshold concepts as a framework, it analyzed institutional registration records to determine the type of faculty development opportunitieschosen by engineering educators, and the extent to which they participated in those related to learner-centered instructional practices for remote delivery.Analysis shows that engineering educators participated proportionally less than their colleagues in other disciplines, and there is an indication that the pandemic may facilitate an ongoing change in the teaching practices of engineering educators. Opportunities for enhancing faculty development practices for engineering educators are proposed.

Emotional labour of academic integrity: How does it feel?

Academic integrity is valued in all Canadian educational systems, yet no real accounting of academic integrity violations (AIVs) exists primarily because faculty under-report them. Numerous disincentives dissuade faculty from reporting AIVs, and voluntarily reporting violations increases emotional labour. Still, some faculty feel duty-bound to do so. This paper explores the neglected emotional experience when reporting AIVs using a phenomenological approach. Interviews with a purposive, homogenous sample of faculty at a small Canadian community college who reported AIVs reveal that reporting AIVs disturbed relationships with students, and that navigating bureaucratic processes, when other faculty choose not to, caused frustration. After reporting, faculty in this study felt alienated from the outcomes of their decisions. Still, they remained committed to reporting AIVs because it was part of their self-definition as educators to defend the innocent and protect the future. This small sample of faculty identify personal experiences and institutional barriers that may discourage faculty from reporting AIVs. Finally, the findings reveal a gap between faculty and international students’ understanding of academic integrity. Bridging this gap is important because of the intensified emotional and relational challenges arising from the more serious consequences of reporting AIVs involving international students. The findings reveal a need for faculty development opportunities that build intercultural competence and handle AIVs in a way that respects diverse worldviews and promotes the values of academic integrity.

Informal faculty development in health professions education: Identifying opportunities in everyday practice

Introduction Faculty development (FD) supports health professions educators to develop knowledge, skills, and expertise. Whilst formal FD is a focus in the health professions education (HPE) literature, little is known about how FD occurs informally. We sought to identify opportunities and constraints for informal FD amongst health professions educators in the academic (university) setting and understand how they engage with these opportunities. Methods This exploratory study was conducted in one Australian university. Interviews and focus groups were conducted with undergraduate and postgraduate teachers and assessors (teachers) (n = 10); teaching team and program leaders (mid-level leaders) (n = 8); and senior (university-level) leaders (n = 2). We analysed data thematically and applied situated cognition theory. Results We identified three everyday educational practices that provide opportunities for informal FD in the academic setting: (1) applying evidence to; (2) evaluating; and (3) sharing, educational practice. Engaging with these opportunities was shaped by individuals’ motivation and proactivity to engage in professional learning (effectivities) and organisational culture and structures (constraints). Conclusion Applying evidence to, evaluating, and sharing educational practice provide valuable contexts for ongoing learning in the academic setting. Assisting educators and organisations to recognise and leverage these ‘in situ’ FD opportunities is vital in fostering a continuous learning culture.

Teaching Pharmacology to Medical Students: Preference for Faculty Interaction Over Recorded Lectures

One impact of COVID-19 on teaching has been the utilization of the virtual classroom and, along with that, “Zoom fatigue”. At Indiana University School of Medicine (IUSM), one approach to reduce the scheduled screen time has been to pre-record lectures so students can access these at their convenience. Much of the pharmacology content is delivered as lecture with some content reinforcement in small group sessions. Transitioning from synchronous, live lectures to pre-recorded lectures that can be accessed asynchronously presents a number of potential challenges including building rapport with students, maintaining a common experience between the pharmacology faculty and students since the lectures can be recorded weeks or months before being accessible to the students, responding to non-verbal cues during the lecture to expand or quickly move past a concept, opportunities for faculty development in response to those non-verbal cues, and continuous quality improvement of the lecture based on real-time feedback. One solution has been the “interactive lecture”: a hybrid model in which students prepare for a synchronous session by watching a short (15-20 min) pre-recording that provides relevant physiology and potentially pharmacological strategies. Students join the synchronous session to reinforce and build on concepts from the pre-recording. Because they are coming into the session with some degree of foundational knowledge, there are more opportunities for interaction in the form of polling questions. Similar to reading the non-verbal cues in the classroom, these questions allow the instructor to respond to the students in the room and adjust the teaching focus in real-time. In this way, the session is somewhat directed by the students and their understanding and questions. Additionally, the instructor can revise the session in the future based on a better understanding of what concepts were clear and where students struggled. The IUSM second-year medical students had the experience of one course in which pharmacology was taught asynchronously with only one synchronous small group session and another course in which pharmacology was taught synchronously for all sessions either as interactive lectures or small group sessions. At the end of the second course, students received an evaluation in which they were asked to rank their preference. The overall response rate was 79% (296 of 375 students responding). Of these, 32% of students chose only the pre-recording and 13% of students chose to only access slides without any recording or live session. The remaining 55% of students included a synchronous session in their preference. Clearly, there is a large fraction of students who prefer to learn the pharmacology content independently. Based on other feedback, many of these students are utilizing non-IUSM resources such as Sketchy Pharm, First Aid, and USMLE Step 1 Qbank as their primary resource for pharmacology content. However, the majority of students want some form of synchronous session and interaction in order to help learn, solidify, and apply pharmacology. Of those students, nearly half preferred the interactive lecture format. The interactive lecture is an efficient and effective way to deliver pharmacology content and maintain student-faculty interaction in the virtual classroom.

Systems-Based Practice: Time to Finally Adopt the Orphan Competency.

Systems-Based Practice: Time to Finally Adopt the Orphan Competency.

Elevating the Objectives of Higher Education to Effectively Serve Students From Diverse Socioeconomic Backgrounds

As colleges and universities expand the socioeconomic diversity of their student populations, many policies and practices require reconceptualization to better serve all students. Recent social psychology and learning sciences research directly informs how to support the achievement and well-being of students from lower socioeconomic status backgrounds, with attention to intersecting minoritized identities. These approaches challenge assimilationist and deficit-based views of student identities in addressing factors at multiple levels of their sociocultural contexts. Building from the evidence, recommendations emphasize committing financial resources to allow for full access and participation in higher education. Also, specific faculty practices and development opportunities can enhance teaching. Finally, community emerges as a central theme; recommendations enhance student connections within and beyond the college environment.

Debriefing for Simulation-Based Medical Education: A Survey From the International Network of Simulation-Based Pediatric Innovation, Research and Education.

Current debriefing approaches and faculty development strategies for simulation educators differ around the world. We aim to describe the status of current debriefing practice and faculty development for simulation educators in this study. We distributed a paper-based survey during 2 international conferences to obtain data from active International Network for Simulation-based Pediatric Innovation, Research and Education members. The survey was tested to ensure content validity and consisted of the following 3 constructs: demographic characteristics, current debriefing practice, and issues related to faculty development. One hundred nine of 114 participants (96%) completed the survey. Debriefing practice differs in terms of timing, duration, framework, and conversational framework. Most debriefings were less than 30 minutes (93/109, 85%), with many educators not using objective data during debriefing (47/109, 43%). Three- or 4-phase debriefing frameworks were used most commonly (66/109, 61%). Most participants have access to some faculty development opportunities (99/109, 91%). Barriers to faculty development are related to time and resource constraints (eg, freeing up facilitator's time: 75/109, 69%, competing priorities 64/109, 59%). Most participants indicated that their needs for debriefing to improve learning outcomes were met (95/109, 87%). The desired content for future faculty development opportunities varies between educators with different levels of expertise. Approaches to debriefing among members of an international pediatric simulation network vary considerably. Although faculty development opportunities were available to most participants, future simulation programs should work on addressing barriers and optimizing faculty development plans to meet the needs of their educators.