Structure and impact of longitudinal Graduate Medical Education curricula designed to prepare future clinician-educators: A systematic scoping review: BEME Guide No. 74

Abstract

Background

Many Graduate Medical Education (GME) programs offer clinician-educator curricula. The specific instructional methods employed and current best practices for clinician-educator curricula are unknown. We aimed to characterize the structure, curriculum content, instructional methods, and outcomes of longitudinal GME clinician-educator curricula.

Methods

We conducted a scoping review, registered with BEME, by comprehensively searching health science databases and related grey literature from January 2008 to January 2021 for studies involving longitudinal GME curricula aimed to train future clinician-educators.

Results

From 9437 articles, 36 unique curricula were included in our review. Most curricula were designed for residents (n = 26) but were heterogeneous in structure, instructional methods, and content. Several curricular themes emerged, including: 1) duration ≥ 12 months, 2) application of theory-based didactics with experiential activities, 3) independent projects, 4) exposure to faculty mentorship and educator communities, 5) strengthening competencies beyond teaching and scholarship, and 6) protected time and funding. Most outcomes were positive and focused on learner satisfaction or behavior change related to scholarly output and career tracking.

Conclusions

Curricula in our review included important skills including experiential teaching, scholarly projects, and exposure to educator communities. Future curricula should build on these competencies and include more assessment of learner and program outcomes.

Keywords:

• Clinician-educator
• graduate medical education
• curriculum
• career development

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the Cross Departmental Team of the Cushing/Whitney Medical Library for technical support; faculty of the Yale Teaching and Learning Center for their ongoing support of developing medical educators and medical education scholarship at Yale; as well as our BEME BICC for their guidance and feedback throughout the completion of this review.

Disclosure statement

The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Yihan Yang

Yihan Yang, MD, Clinical Instructor of Medicine, University of Washington School of Medicine, Twitter: @YihanYangMD.

Katherine Gielissen

Katherine Gielissen, MD, MHS-MedEd, Assistant Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics, Associate Clerkship Director, Internal Medicine, Yale School of Medicine.

Bryan Brown

Bryan Brown, MD, MHS-MedEd, Assistant Professor of Medicine, University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine.

Judy M. Spak

Judy M. Spak, MLS, Head of Academic Research and Education, Cushing/Whitney Medical Library, Yale School of Medicine.

Donna M. Windish

Donna M. Windish, MD, MPH, Associate Professor of Medicine, Program Director, Yale General Internal Medicine Medical Education Fellowship, Yale School of Medicine.