Twelve tips for turning quality assurance data into undergraduate teaching awards: A quality improvement and student engagement initiative

Abstract

Data on teaching awards in undergraduate medical education are sparse. The benefits of an awards system may seem obvious at first glance. However, there are also potential problems relating to fairness, avoidance of bias, and alignment of the awards system with a wider strategy for quality improvement and curriculum development. Here, we report five- year single center experience with establishing undergraduate teaching awards in a large academic teaching hospital. Due to lack of additional funding we based our awards not on peer review but mainly on existing and very comprehensive quality assurance (QA) data. Our 12 tips describe practical points but also pitfalls with awards categories and criteria, advertising and disseminating the awards, the actual awards ceremony and finally embedding the awards in the hospital’s wider strategy. To be truly successful, teaching awards and prizes need to be carefully considered, designed and aligned with a wider institutional strategy of rewarding enthusiastic educators.

Acknowledgments

We are indebted to our enthusiastic tutors who make our awards system worthwhile and to our students for the comprehensive feedback that makes it work. We are grateful to Mrs. Jeannette Smith, Quality Assurance Coordinator at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, for helpful discussion.

Disclosure statement

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

Notes on contributors

Kate Newton was at the time of writing Quality Assurance Manager in the Department of Undergraduate Medical Education at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. She now works in a new role at Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Helen Lewis Helen Lewis was Quality Assurance Coordinator and now works in a new role at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN).

Mark Pugh is a Consultant Anesthetist, Medical Director and former Hospital Dean at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Paladugu Madhavi is a Consultant Pediatrician and current Hospital Dean at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Alexander Woywodt is a Consultant Nephrologist and Associate Undergraduate Dean at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.