Faculty Futures Initiative (FFI)
Five-Year Strategic Plan
for Family Medicine Faculty Development
The Faculty Futures Initiative is a contract (No. 240-96-0026)
from the Health Resources and Services Administration
awarded to the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine.
FFI PROJECT TEAM AND ADVISORY COMMITTEE
MEMBERS:
William Anderson, PhD
Carole Bland, PhD
Ardis Davis, MSW (Project Manager)
Thomas DeWitt, MD
Julie Dostal, MD
Montgomery Douglas, MD
John Frey, MD
Julea Garner, MD
Dona Harris, PhD (Project Codirector)
Richard Holloway, PhD (Advisory Committee Chair)
Katherine Krause, MD (Project Director)
William Mygdal, EdD
Adriana Padilla, MD
Kent Sheets, PhD
Roger Sherwood, CAE (Project Administrator)
Annie Lea Shuster
Kelly Skeff, MD
Jeannette South-Paul, MD
Jeff Stearns, MD
Jeff Susman, MD
Mary Willard, MD
Federal Project Officer:
Elsie Quinones, MA
The Faculty Futures Initiative (FFI) is a contract (No.
240-96-0026) from the Health Resources and Services Administration
to the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine.
For more information, contact Ardis Davis, FFI Project
Manager, 425-423-0922, ArdisD7283@aol.com,
or Roger Sherwood, FFI Project Administrator, 800-274-2237,
ext. 4500, sherwood@stfm.org.
PREAMBLE
For the purposes of this strategic plan, faculty development
is defined as follows.
Faculty development is: a career-long process of skill
enhancement and academic socialization by all who are
involved in teaching, research, and leadership of academic
programs. This process involves:
1. Providing training in essential academic skills to
entry-level faculty working in departmental, residency,
and office-based settings;
2. Improving the skills of experienced teachers and community
preceptors;
3. Encouraging and supporting the achievement of professional
goals idenfied by individual faculty; and
4. Encouraging the integration of personal and professional
goals with the goals of a department or residency program.
ASSUMPTIONS
The goals and objectives outlined in this strategic plan
are based In part on the following assumptions.
A. More faculty in family medicine are needed. It is
expected that those who enter the field of academic family
medicine will be a diverse and often academically inexperience
faculty who should be presented with appropriate, equitable
opportunties for faculty development.
B. The nature of faculty is changing and more teaching
is being done by community-based preceptors.
C. To develop more fully the "academic culture" of family
medicine, we must develop research, leadership, and administrative
skills in faculty in order to build a solid research-based
foundation in family medicine
D. Integration of community preceptors and community educational
resources is essential to meet future demands in a changing
medical education environment
E. Faculty development is crucial for the health of the
public through the training of quality physicians
F. Faculty are increasingly responsible for sustaining
economic productivity
G. Faculty development is a life-long process of change
(see above definition)
H. Faculty development needs vary according to faculty
type.
PREMISE
Although this strategic plan begins with family medicine
faculty development, it is intended to be broadly applicable
to other primary care specialties.
PURPOSE
The purposes of this strategic plan are outlined as follows:
A. Serve as a "road map" and framework for identifying
current and future faculty development needs, suggesting
activities and strategies for implementation
B. Guide family medicine organizations¡ faculty development
efforts
C. Develop implementation strategies for suggested activities
D. Guide and shape federal policy development
PROCESS
This 5-year Strategic Plan for Family Medicine Faculty
Development provides goals, objectives, and initial implementation
strategies through three discrete projects. The three
projects are intended to launch efforts which will lead
the discipline of family medicine toward attainment of
the goals in this 5-year Strategic Plan. It is important
to note, however, that there will be subsequent implementation
strategies, which are yet to be identified, and which
will flow from the three projects identified in this plan.
It is equally important to note that these three projects
are to be conducted with oversight and guidance from the
FFI Project Team and Advisory Committee.
Additionally, it will be important for the FFI Project
Team and Advisory Committee to reassess this 5-year Strategic
Plan periodically to determine how relevant it is to the
rapidly changing face of family medicine faculty nationally
and to make appropriate revisions. The FFI Project Team
and Advisory Committee will revisit this strategic plan
at their annual meetings. In conjunction with these FFI
reviews, recommendations for how the 5-year Strategic
Plan and its implementation activities are to be revised
and monitored will be made.
BACKGROUND
The history of faculty development in family medicine
and the history of the evolution of family medicine itself
are closely intertwined. Considerable federal and private
funding sources have contributed greatly to the growth
and evolution of faculty development in family medicine.
Focusing initially on development of teaching skills in
the 1970s, faculty development methodologies in family
medicine matured considerably in the 1980s through application
of higher education principles to specific needs of family
medicine faculty. More recently, one of the most important
developments in family medicine faculty development has
been the identification of professional academic skills
as critical for family medicine faculty.
THE FACULTY FUTURES INITIATIVE
Over the past 18 months, the FFI, funded through a contract
to STFM from the Health Resources and Services Administration,
has worked toward the development of this 5-year Strategic
Plan for Family Medicine Faculty Development. Five areas
were initially identified by the FFI Advisory Committee
as key to the plan. These five areas were:
- Development of Faculty Workforce
- Preparation of Faculty
- Leadership
- Evidence-based Faculty Development
- Delivery Methods and Incentives
Within each of these areas, subareas were identified.
A number of resources were identified (both literature
and data sources) as useful in defining specific needs
for each of the key areas. Subcommittees were formed within
FFI to review existing information sources and describe
needs. Four subcommittees addressed needs in the following
areas:
- Workforce Issues
- Preparation of Faculty
- Leadership
- Faculty Development Outcomes Assessment
- Integrated Delivery Systems
The subcommittees reviewed the needs assessment information
gathered and made recommendations with regard to overall
needs, goals, objectives, and target participant faculty.
These recommendations formed much of the basis for this
strategic plan.
Simultaneous with subcommittee work, FFI also conducted
a Delphi Process to draw from the expert opinions represented
within the Advisory Committee. FFI Advisory Committee
members were asked to complete a Delphi Process to identify
needs for family medicine faculty development from both
local and national perspectives. The data were tabulated
and areas were rank-ordered, according to highest perceived
need for each of the national and local perspectives.
These Delphi data were also used by the FFI Advisory Committee
and Project Team in formulating the goals and objectives
for the strategic plan. The content area rankings emerging
from the Delphi data are presented below.
RANKING OF NATIONAL NEEDS
FROM 2nd ADMINISTRATION OF DELPHI
I. Workforce
A. Community Preceptors - recruitment and training
II. Sustainability/Organization
A. Stable funding
B. Faculty development at residency
III. Skills
A. Leadership
B. Minorities to succeed and advance
IV. Workforce/Skills: Minority
A. Increase overall minority workforce numbers
B. Increase overall minority leaders
C. Increase overall women leaders
V. Regional Centers of Excellence
VI. Skills
A. Faculty succeed/advance
VII. Stratify Needs
RANKING OF LOCAL NEEDS
FROM 2nd ADMINISTRATION OF DELPHI
I. Workforce
A. Minority
B. Community Preceptors
II. Skills - new faculty
III. Sustainability
A. Stable funding
B. Faculty development at residency
IV. Workforce
A. Minority leaders
B. Women leaders
C. Minority faculty - increase overall numbers
V. Skills
A. Managed care
B. Succeed/advance
C. Outcomes/evidence-based medicine/population medicine
INPUT INTO GOALS, OBJECTIVES,
AND IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGIES
The goals and objectives and implementation strategies
(three Requests for Proposals) of the 5-year Strategic
Plan were circulated among Advisory Committee (AC) members
and outside groups represented by AC members for comment
and input. The following groups provided comment and input:
- STFM's Group on Faculty Development
- STFM's Group on Predoctoral Education Directors
- Association of Family Practice Residency Program Directors
(AFPRD) Association of
- Departments of Family Medicine (ADFM)
- American Academy of Family Physicians/ Commission
on Education (AAFP/COE)
GOALS
GOAL A: Develop a "road map" and framework which defines
the content areas and needed competencies by various types
of faculty Various types of faculty are defined below.
ILLUSTRATIVE "WEDGE" MODEL OF FACULTY TYPES
ACADEMIC ACTIVITY
(NOTE: The electronically transmitted version of this
document does not contain the graphic for this model.
If you wish to receive a hard copy of this page, contact
Ardis Davis at ArdisD7283@aol.com
and have her fax it to you).
Objectives:
1. Define, list, and disseminate competencies needed for
various types of faculty and various teaching settings
2. Create a tool which assesses needs of faculty and defines
competencies that are required for their type and setting;
this tool is to be used as a self-assessment tool (eg,
faculty, chairs, program directors, predoctoral directors,
faculty developers, and community preceptors)
3. Define a process for developing career management
a. how to understand and identify individual goals
b. problem-solving process to be used by individual faculty
and leaders
GOAL B: Identify and disseminate (via electronic methods
and traditional hard copy methods) useful models of faculty
development for faculty of various types in various settings
Objectives:
1. Develop compendium which describes existing faculty
development models appropriate to various settings and
types of faculty
2. Identify emerging models and use of new technology
to improve access to faculty development opportunities
GOAL C: Identify mechanisms for reaching community preceptors
with faculty development
Objectives:
1. Identify mechanisms for improved access to faculty
development for community preceptors
2. Provide an opportunity for every community preceptor
to identify their faculty development needs and optimum
options for access
GOAL D: Identify competencies needed to succeed in positions
of leadership and/or improve leadership skills among physicians
who aspire to such positions, with a special emphasis
on the development of female and minority faculty.
Objectives:
1. Foster leadership development for chairs and program
directors,
especially minorities and females
GOAL E: Increase the number of family medicine faculty
in leadership positions, that number being based a process
whereby an appropriate mix of research-trained and clinically
trained faculty is identified for the future
Objectives:
1. Implement a process for defining needs of family medicine
and from information derived, define a mix of faculty
necessary to meet those needs
2. Implement training relevant for research-educators
as needed for future mix
3. Implement training relevant for clinician-educators
as needed for future mix
4. Implement appropriate training to develop specific
research skills as defined by the future need and mix
of faculty
GOAL F: Maintain numbers of people entering into family
medicine to maintain the pipeline into the family medicine
faculty workforce
Objectives:
1. Develop a faculty recruitment and assistance network
to track faculty and to match faculty with available positions.
GOAL G: Assure long-term viability of faculty development
programs in family medicine so that they can continue
to provide sustained and appropriate levels of service,
scholarship, and leadership to the field of family medicine.
Objectives:
1. Secure stable funding sources for family medicine faculty
development initiatives
2. Identify three new partnerships or collaborations for
faculty development initiatives
IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGIES
The FFI Project Team and Advisory Committees have identified
three discrete projects to be implemented over the period
from July 1998 through September 1999 (Sept, 1999 is the
month when the current FFI contract funding period comes
to a close). These three projects are intended to launch
efforts which will eventually lead toward attainment of
the goals and objectives in this 5-year Strategic Plan.
These projects are related to one another in content and
it is, therefore, the intent of FFI to have the selected
consultants attend FFI Advisory Committee meetings and
receive input from each other as well as from the FFI
Project Team and Advisory Committee throughout the implementation
of the projects.
To conduct these projects, STFM has issued three Requests
for Proposals to select three consultants to carry out
the three projects with oversight by the FFI Project Team
and Advisory Committee. They are:
PROJECT I: Family Medicine Faculty Database Design and
Maintenance Planning
PROJECT II: Clustering of Faculty Competencies Along
a Continuum of Faculty Types
PROJECT III: Delivery And Dissemination Methods for Family
Medicine Faculty Development
|
