Twelve tips for promoting consistent, good quality medical education across diverse clinical settings through faculty development approaches

Abstract

When students attend clinical attachments in diverse locations, a key challenge is in ensuring consistently good teaching over all areas. To meet this challenge, a faculty development intervention called TiMEtoTeach was created with the aim of reaching all involved in teaching medical students. The programme takes a holistic view of workplace (professional clinical attachments) learning with the recognition of all who are part of the student learning journey, including staff in clinical environments, charitable organisations, fellow students and the patients and carers. Empowering and upskilling this diverse group, we create a Universal Faculty. We engage this group with a comprehensive and accessible faculty development programme, enabling a consistent, authentic, and realistic learning experience for students. This supports graduate preparedness for their roles as junior doctors. The twelve tips described in this article relate to simple, achievable processes that faculty developers within medical education can apply to help improve consistency and quality in clinical workplace experience for students, recognising the challenges of engaging the large and diverse group of people who support education within the clinical arena.

Keywords:

• CPD
• faculty development
• teaching skills
• clinical
• faculty

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Caitriona A. Dennis

Caitriona A. Dennis, PhD, is the Educational Staff Development Manager who leads faculty development opportunities to enhance teaching across the School of Medicine, University of Leeds.

Nancy Davies

Nancy Davies, BA (Hons), is a Learning Technologist within the School of Medicine and supports technology-enhanced learning innovations. Together they run TiMEtoTeach to promote medical education.