FACULTY-DEVELOPMENT FOR AMBULATORY CARE EDUCATION

Faculty play an important role in the delivery of quality instruction in the ambulatory setting. As medical schools and residency programs m ove clinical training to ambulatory care settings, more faculty must b e recruited and trained. Medical educators have attempted to prepare f aculty to teach in ambulatory care settings by conducting faculty deve lopment programs. This study documents the current practices of a samp le of 14 peer-nominated medical educators who conduct this type of fac ulty development program. The authors conducted telephone interviews t o learn what these educators taught, how they conducted and evaluated their programs, and the theoretical framework guiding their selection of program content and format. Results show that these faculty develop ment programs were delivered almost exclusively in the workshop format , and that there was remarkable similarity in the topics and strategie s used. Evaluation was generally limited to satisfaction ratings. Base d on the results of this study, the authors recommend that faculty dev elopment programs that now emphasize the teaching encounter itself sho uld give equal emphasis to (1) the importance of pre-instructional pla nning; (2) teaching faculty how to employ post-instructional technique s such as reflection; and (3) training learners and clinic staff to co llaborate with faculty in the learning process.