Twelve tips for developing, implementing, and sustaining medical education fellowship programs: Building on new trends and solid foundations

Abstract

Medical education fellowship programs (MEFPs) are a form of faculty development contributing to an organization’s educational mission and participants’ career development. Building an MEFP requires a systematic design, implementation, and evaluation approach which aligns institutional and individual faculty goals. Implementing an MEFP requires a team of committed individuals who provide expertise, guidance, and mentoring. Qualified MEFP directors should utilize instructional methods that promote individual and institutional short and long term growth. Directors must balance the use of traditional design, implementation, and evaluation methodologies with advancing trends that may support or threaten the acceptability and sustainability of the program. Drawing on the expertise of 28 MEFP directors, we provide twelve tips as a guide to those implementing, sustaining, and/or growing a successful MEFP whose value is demonstrated by its impacts on participants, learners, patients, teaching faculty, institutions, the greater medical education community, and the population’s health.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge to following individuals: Nancy Searle for initiating and supporting the DMEFP group and Joan Friedland and other mentors who helped many of us develop careers in medical education. The authors also thank B. Lee Ligon, PhD for her help with editing, Erin E. Riley for technical editing of final revisions, and Karla Gonzales for reviewing and editing references.

Declaration of interest: The authors report that they have no conflicts of interest and are responsible for the content of the article.