UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH DAKOTA
School of Medicine
Sioux Falls, South Dakota
Team Contact/Coordinator: Robert R. Raszkowski, M.D., Ph.D.
E-mail: Janet Lindeman, M.D. – jlindema@usd.edu
Phone: 605/357-1304
Fax: 605/357-1311
Faculty Development Needs to Address at the Models That Work Conference
The USD/SM Faculty Development Committee has recently been reconstituted by the request of the faculty. The school has not had any formal Faculty Development in the past and needs to meet the needs of its faculty in this area..
Preliminary Needs Assessment Plan
Until this year, faculty development at the University of South Dakota School of Medicine meant funding to learn a new basic science research technique. Within the past year the Faculty Council, with the Dean's support, identified the need for a much broader plan for faculty development. This need was also identified at the time of the School's last LCME site visit.
At the Faculty Development Committee's initial meeting on June 9, 1998, the following specific items were felt by the Committee to be areas which need to be addressed and were organized under the following headings:
A. Sociologic
- Differences in learning styles between traditional students and Native American students
- Ethics of patient care, i.e., ethics in the medical sciences
- Ethics in the biological sciences, to include research related ethics.
B. Teaching Skills
- Interviewing skills (This is felt to be a lack in such areas as serving on a faculty search committee and when serving on the admissions committee.)
- Small group leadership skills
- How to use technology in teaching
- Assessment and evaluation
- How to evaluate fellow faculty members and department chairs
- Learning different teaching formats
C. Technology
- Mandatory for all faculty to have basic computer skills
- Mandatory for all faculty to be able to use the Picture Tel system
- Need additional access to computer programs
- Needs to be funds to continue to keep computers updated for the faculty
D. Evaluation
- This is an area that has not been addressed by the C & E Committee.
- Evaluation techniques and how and when to apply them.
The committee also agreed that perceived needs by the committee were not enough and that the faculty should be formally surveyed for their input. To begin this process, the faculty will be asked, at their quarterly meeting this week, to list their top two priorities for their personal development as a faculty member (beyond their personal research interests).
Brief Description of Preliminary Thoughts on Addressing Faculty Development Needs
With preliminary data in hand, both from the faculty and from the Faculty Development Committee, as well as with ideas from the "Models that Work" Workshop, we plan to begin with one hour seminars, probably at noon time, and delivered via our Picture Tel video conference system so that all four School of Medicine sites throughout our state can participate. Specific short courses will also need to be developed and delivered for such topics as computer skills, mastering video conference for teaching, etc. Currently, the committee is looking at tools to use to survey the faculty and by the time of the Faculty Development Workshop in early December, our draft needs assessment tool should be completed.
