** Poster Award Nominee

Faculty development that crosses school boundaries: the UC Davis Vet-Med Teaching Scholars PRogram

Frazier T. Stevenson¹*; Dan Pratt²; John Collins²; Constance M. Bowe¹; Stephen J. Pinney³; Michael Wilkes¹; Malathi Srinivasan^{1, 1}UC Davis School of Medicine, Sacramento CA USA; ² Univ of British Colombia, Vancouver BC Canada; ³UC San Francisco School of Medicine, U.S.A.

Purpose:  At the University of California Davis (UCD), we began in 2003 a teaching academy for combined faculty from the veterinary and medical schools. We sought to provide an in depth survey of medical education and improve educators’ effectiveness as regional/national leaders. We also sought to promote new ideas via scholars’ collaboration with faculty from a different professional school.

Methods:  The UCD Teaching Scholars Program is a half year course, comprised of 24 weekly half-day small group sessions, for nominated faculty in the Schools of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine.  The program curriculum featured: teaching models, learning theory, assessment/feedback strategies, education leadership, and education research. Faculty included four core leaders with visiting scholars. Sessions were led seminar-style with a mix of transmission and developmental/discussion teaching. We enrolled 7-10 faculty per year, from a diverse pool of current and developing educational leaders. All were given release time by their chairs.

Results:  Four years of Teaching Scholars participants were surveyed about program experiences and outcomes.  26 (66%) respondents reported that they were very satisfied with the course (4.6/5), individual curricular blocks (4.2-4.6), and other faculty (4.7). Participants reported positive impact on their effectiveness as educators (100%), course directors (84%), leaders (72%), educational researchers (52%).  Combining faculty from different educational backgrounds significantly broadened perspectives, leading to greater/new collaboration.

Conclusion/Future Directions: Based on participant feedback, our program was a success at stimulating change in these faculty. This program may provide a template for other medical institutions who seek to enhance their educational mission.