By Jonathan Sherbino (@sherbino)
While clinical medicine has been transformed by evidence-based medicine (EBM) health professions education seems stuck in an age of traditional dogma and personal experience. The transformation of education systems requires individuals who can translate education theories into the messy clinical teaching environment.
In a Medical Journal of Australia editorial entitled “Where is the next generation of medical educators?” Hu et al. state:
“Specialist medical educators (should) have the expertise and commitment to lead and deliver evidence-based educational improvements, and to engage and motivate the many teaching clinicians.”
So, assuming a need for physicians (or any health professional for that matter!) with advanced training in medical education to serve as consultants – Clinician Educators – what is the skill set? In the age of competency-based education, what are the competencies of a CE?
In our study of Clinician Educators (Read the whole study at Academic Medicine – in press), at least two-thirds of respondents listed the following as “very important” domains of competency:
- Communication skills (89%);
- Clinical teaching (79%);
- Assessment (78%);
- Curriculum Development (68%);
- Program evaluation (68%); and
- Education leadership (67%).
Figure 1: Domains of Competence
In regards to training CEs, there was no clear support for a particular training stream. Only 55% of those surveyed agreed that a graduate degree in education would be effective in preparing physicians for the role of a Clinician Educator, while 39% felt that faculty development programs were effective.
Thoughts?
What additional competencies define a CE?
What type of training is required?
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