Faculty perceptions and practice impact of a faculty development workshop on emergency medicine teaching

Abstract

ABSTRACT Background: Faculty development initiatives to improve emergency department (ED) teaching are compromised by the paucity of information about what behaviours and characteristics are desirable in an emergency medicine (EM) teacher. Objectives: To design and evaluate a learner-centred, interactive faculty development workshop based on original ED teaching research. Methods: Registrants for a university-based faculty development workshop on ED teaching completed a needs assessment and pre-workshop self-reflection exercise. Responses were grouped into 3 themes derived from the ambulatory teaching literature and a recent survey of expert clinical EM teachers and learners. Participants underwent a half-day workshop consisting of 1 large group interactive session and 3 small group sessions using role playing, practice reflection, real time review of hard copy resources, and brainstorming. Evaluation included a post-event ordinal scale questionnaire and a 4-month follow-up short answer survey, both measuring participants' perceptions of workshop effectiveness. Results: Fifteen faculty participated. The needs assessment identified “Common mistakes,” “Teaching efficiently” and “Dealing with the difficult learner” as themes. All 15 completed evaluations, rating the workshop as relevant (4.6/5), specific to their needs (4.4/5) and useful (4.5/5). At 4 months, 10 out of 10 respondents reported success at implementing new techniques and 8 reported greater confidence in teaching. The most common new techniques were: setting better learning objectives, giving better feedback, actively seeking teaching opportunities, and identifying a teaching point. Conclusions: Learner-centred faculty development meets perceived needs of faculty and can result in participants trying new teaching strategies.