1. Planning for Your Academic Promotion as a Clinician-Educator
Anne Walling MB, ChB
Scott Moser MD
Gretchen Dickson MD, MBA

2. Disclosures The presenters have no disclosures Backgrounds
Walling: Associate Dean Faculty Affairs
Moser: Department Promotion & Tenure (P&T) Chair;
Dickson: Preparing for promotion to associate professor
Walling & Moser: former School P&T Committee members

3. Why are you here?
What are your principal concerns about academic promotion?
How can we help?

4. Session Objectives For the academic promotion of clinician-educators , participants will be able to
Discuss key concepts
Identify common challenges/opportunities
List “best practices” in preparing for promotion
Develop a realistic promotion plan
Identify at least 3 immediate action steps

5. Clinician-Educators: National Background
Dramatic rise in numbers of non-tenure track faculty
70%+ MD new hires non-tenure
Non-tenure increasingly dominant in most schools
No good national data specifically on clinician educators
----- non-tenure tracks
---- tenured/tenure track

6. Family Medicine Faculty Tenure Status
Family Medicine Faculty by Track: AAMC Faculty Roster, December 2014
Track
Number of Faculty
% Total
% Adjusted for Tenure Availability
and Known Rank
Tenured
411
8.2
9.6
Tenure Track
484
9.7
11.3
Non-tenure Track
3,376
67.9
79.1
Tenure not available
369
7.4 -
Missing
331
6.6
Total
4971
4271

7. What is a Clinician Educator (CE)?
AAMC Description “primary responsibilities in teaching, teaching and patient care, or patient care. Research or scholarship, largely directed toward patient care and teaching, may or may not be required for promotion. However, publication or original research in peer-reviewed medical and scientific journals must not be required for promotion.”
112 (84%) US Schools report CE tracks
Individual schools have 1-6 different CE tracks!!!
Enormous variations among schools
Take-home #1. Clarify your school’s definitions
Make sure you are on the BEST track for you!

8. Key Concepts for Promotion
Ranks: instructor, assistant, associate, professor
Criteria: Usually in Education, Scholarship, Service
Promotion requirements specific to track and rank
Expectations may be poorly defined
Enormous variation among schools
Take-home #2. Verify the exact criteria for
CE promotion for your school

9. Clinician Educators Promotion: major issues
Promotion systems built on the tenure/research model
Education should be the MAJOR consideration for CE
Uncertainty about specific requirements/values for CE
Disconnects in beliefs about requirements
Take home # 3: Seek inside information
about how YOUR School’s P&T system works
(at least one basic scientist and one subspecialist advisor)

10. Proposed Guidelines for Education in CE Promotions
Define 7 domains of educational activities
Propose quality, quantity, impact measures
Toolbox (
Unclear if schools will adopt
Take home #4. P&T systems change:
Guidelines could become norms. Be Prepared!
Baldwin C, Chandran L, Gusic. Guidelines for evaluating the educational performance of medical school faculty: priming a national conversation. Teach,
Learn Med 2011;23(3):285-97

11. Proposed Guidelines: Educational Domains for Assessment in Promotion
1. Teaching
2. Learner assessment
3. Curriculum development
4. Mentoring/advising
5. Leadership/administration
6. Scholarly approach
7. Educational scholarship

12. What is a “Scholarly Approach to Education”?
Documented evidence of:
Personal development (improves knowledge & skills)
Reflective practice (seeks & uses feedback/outcomes)
Updates programs & uses best practices
Overall “Structured rigorous approach” (Glassick’s criteria)
1. Clear goals
2. Adequate preparation
3. Appropriate methods
4. Significant results (Kilpatrick’s 4 levels)
5. Effective presentation
6. Reflective critique

13. What is Educational Scholarship?
The study of teaching/information dissemination process
Examples
Publications (articles, books, chapters, monographs)
Presentations (local, regional, national)
Electronic resources
Other tools, products, guidelines
Grants and demonstration projects
“3Ps” - Peer review, Public, Platform
Baldwin C, Chandran L, Gusic. Guidelines for evaluating the educational performance of medical school faculty: priming a national conversation. Teach, Learn Med 2011;23(3):285-97

14. The 10 Commandments for Promotion
Make sure you are on the optimal track
Know the rules and how they are applied
Monitor changes in criteria/systems
Get regular constructive performance reviews
Seek advice outside department and school
Be a scholarly educator (Glassick’s criteria)
Seek scholarship potential in EVERYTHING
Start early and document EVERYTHING
Cultivate external collaborators/referees
Prove your value to the institution

15. Group Exercise: Developing a CE Promotion Plan
A colleague asks your advice on this CV
What advice would you give to improve the chances of successful promotion?
Suggest priorities
Suggest resources
Provide a realistic timeline

16. Wrap up What insights/surprises from this session?
To what extent were objectives achieved?
What will you take away?
What do you still want to know?
What will you do in your institution?
Questions? Comments?

17. Please evaluate this session at: stfm.org/sessionevaluation THANK YOU