Transformative professional development of physicians as educators: assessment of a model.

Full Abstract

PURPOSE:
Medical education reform has been the clarion call of U.S. medical educators and policymakers for two decades. To foster change and seed reform, Harvard Medical School created a professional development program for physicians and scientists actively engaged in educating future physicians that sought to transform both participants and their schools. This study focused on identifying the long-term effects of a professional development program on physician educators.

METHOD:
A follow-up survey of the 1995-97 cohorts of the Harvard Macy Program for Physician Educators was conducted by sending the 99 program participants a questionnaire two years after their participation. Main outcome measures studied were individual changes as reflected in participants' self-reported shifts in teaching behaviors, academic productivity, career advancement, and sense of commitment.

RESULTS:
A total of 63 participants completed the questionnaire, for a response rate of 63.6%. Two years following participation in the program, a majority (88.8%) of respondents reported that participation had significantly affected their professional development, including long-term changes in teaching behaviors (77.8%), engagement in new educational activities from committee work (86%) to grant funding (52.4%), and renewed vitality/identification of themselves as educators.

CONCLUSIONS:
Long-term follow-up of participants enrolled in an intensive program for physician educators suggests that professional development programs that create an immersion experience designed in a high-challenge, high-support environment, emphasizing experiential and participatory activities can change behaviors in significant ways, and that these changes endure over time.

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Author information

Author/s: Armstrong, Elizabeth G (EG); Doyle, Jennifer (J); Bennett, Nancy L (NL);

Affiliation: Harvard-Macy Institute, Harvard Medical School, 1135 Tremont Street, Suite 900, Boston, MA 02120, USA. elizabeth_armstrong(-atsign-)hms.harvard.edu

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges (Acad Med), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2003-Jul; vol 78 (issue 7) : pp 702-8

Dates: Created 2003/07/14; Completed 2003/09/04; Revised 2006/11/15;

PMID: 12857688, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Education, Medical - organization & administration
Faculty, Medical - organization & administration
Female
Follow-Up Studies
Humans
Job Satisfaction
Male

Massachusetts
Models, Organizational
Physicians - psychology
Professional Competence
Questionnaires
Staff Development - organization & administration
Teaching - methods

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