Twelve tips for early career medical educators

Abstract

The first 10 years of career development pose unique challenges for MD- and PhD-trained faculty members working in medical education. These may include publishing peer-reviewed articles, winning grant funding, teaching, maintaining a clinical practice, and supporting professional communities both within and external to their institution. As the inaugural and current leaders of the ECME group in Canada, we have actively sought to better understand the challenges ECME faculty members face. We developed this understanding by surveying and tracking the qualitative reports of our ECME members, reviewing the (limited) literature available on ECME faculty members’ experiences, and learning from our own experiences as ECME faculty and the advice shared by our own mentors. In this paper, we consolidate this knowledge into 12 tips for ECME faculty members. We suggest these tips will benefit both MD- and PhD-trained ECME faculty members as they strive for professional success.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Canadian ECME community. Members of this community have bravely, publicly and candidly shared their experiences (both the joys and the sorrows), enabling us to have insights into ECME career trajectories and the strategies that have supported success. The authors would also like to thank mentors whose advice is the foundation for many of the tips shared here.

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

The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the United States of America's Department of Defense or other federal agencies.

Notes

1. A biblical analogy to represent the feeling of being surrounded by people speaking different languages and not being able to understand the words others are using.