MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY

College of Osteopathic Medicine

East Lansing, Michigan

Team Contact/Coordinator: Karen Busch

E-mail: busch@com.msu.edu

Phone: 517/355-8301

Fax: 517/432-4014

Faculty Development Needs to Address at the Models That Work Conference

We plan to develop a program for a group of Family Medicine Community and on-campus osteopathic faculty who are part of a medical education consortium. Based on an informal needs assessment, this program will address incorporating evidence based medicine, preventive medicine, and/or the use of computers into clinical training.

Needs Assessment Plan

We are proposing to be a pilot site for the "Models that Work" Conference. We believe that our faculty development model is of interest for several reasons:

• MSUCOM is a community-based, osteopathic medical school, providing all clinical community hospitals located across the state. There is no academic health center at MSUCOM. This has created a strong ambulatory care education component in both our predoctoral and doctoral curriculum.
• SCS is a formal consortium of all the community-based osteopathic hospitals in the state of Michigan and Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine. Formed to address issues of quality medial education, the consortium is nine years old. It has a strong record of developing programs, and overseeing the quality of medical education in the hospitals.
• Both the on-campus faculty in the Department of Family and Community Medicine, and the community-based Family Medicine residency directors meet monthly to plan, develop and implement training for medical students and residents. This unique combination of on-campus and community-based faculty have made it possible to address issues of quality medical education.
• Faculty have already agreed to set aside two hours at their monthly meetings to participate in a faculty development program. Further, they have agreed to commit to two hours of self-study time per month.

A recent informal needs assessment of the Family Medicine residency directors indicated a need for more information on integrating basic concepts of evidence-based medicine (EBM) and computer technologies into clinical practice and on integrating more consistent training on preventive medicine into all clinical experiences. We would propose to do the following:

1. Conduct a formal needs assessment of stakeholders, including the faculty, the learners, and the administrators.

2. Conduct a literature review to determine potential resources/unaddressed issues and to develop a list of competencies to be addressed in the curriculum.

3. Develop a curriculum which addresses the competencies. This would include the development of goals and objectives, sequencing and validating content mater, developing instructional packets, and determining instructional and evaluation strategies. At this time we envision this program being approximately nine-to-ten months in duration. Program would have two components: two hours of ‘in-class" activity and two hours of "self-directed" study. All faculty have access to computers, so, for example, exercises in searching strategies could be done outside of "class" time. However, we are open to other suggestions on more innovative methods.

4. Deliver the curriculum. We have based our faculty development program on a set of core values which include adult learning principles, and the development of collaborative, shared work. Instructional activities would be designed to enhance these core values.

5. Evaluate the program. All of our programs use both formative and summative measures for both learners and and programs. These would be designed during the initial curriculum design phase.

For the past four and a half years, the MSUCOM Department of Family and Community Medicine has received funding from HRSA to develop and provide, as part of a statewide consortial effort, a part-time, year-long faculty development program for its community-based faculty. this program has been highly successful, with over 40 graduates in the past four years. The above proposed program would be developed for faculty who are unable to meet the 25 percent time commitment, yet want to further their own knowledge and skills on issues they address daily.

Through the SCS consortium, there is ample staff to develop this program. There are two full-time Faculty Development specialists, Karen Busch, M.S. and Sandro Piheiro, M.A. Both are A.B.D. in Higher and Adult Education and have over ten years of medical education experience. In addition, there is a curriculum specialist, Jonathan Rohrer, Ph.D. and an Evaluation Specialist, Judith Lyles, Ph.D. who could devote some time to the planning of the project. Following the completion of curriculum design, a number of local and national physician faculty will be assembled to implement the program.

Resources are available at the College to conduct computer labs and/or to utilize classroom with the latest technology. Books, copying secretarial support, etc., will also be provided by the Department of Family Medicine and SCS.

In sum, we believe that this is a unique opportunity to work with two groups of faculty who are usually considered separately in a consortial arrangement. Their needs can be met through the development of this program. We believe that there would be several advantages to being one of the pilot sites:

• We are very interested in developing new ways to reach and teach community-based faculty. The sharing of experiences with other pilot sites and with the experts provided will be invaluable.
• The faculty development staff have had limited exposure to working with well published, highly respected faculty in medical education. Participation in this conference would provide staff an opportunity to receive advice and mentoring on how to disseminate results of community based programs.