Faculty development can help new hospitalists set professional goals, identify effective mentorship, and learn foundational skills. Most faculty development occurs within a single hospitalist group; however this may limit the scope and impact, when compared to a co-sponsored, multi-group event. Previously, we developed a “Faculty Boot Camp” with the goal of teaching content that could help hospitalists be effective early in their careers. This year the program was revised and enlarged to include two other hospitalist groups within our local area.
Purpose:
To expand a single site “Faculty Boot Camp” to include other local hospitalist groups to leverage resources and promote community, camaraderie, and synergy.
Description:
A three-site faculty development committee was established with the support of each hospitalist group leader who each selected hospitalists within their group to be represented on the committee. The three-site faculty development committee planned and led a one-day “Faculty Boot Camp” in November 2016. The objectives of the boot camp were to 1) teach key principles in hospital medicine, 2) identify strategies for successful mentorship and career planning, 3) build a local hospitalist community that fostered collaboration and peer support. Experienced hospitalists and group leaders were recruited to lead individual sessions. Figure 1 outlines the key domains covered by the boot camp and examples of individual sessions. Time was allocated for networking between the sessions and at the end of the day.
Participants in the boot camp were Hospital Medicine fellows, newly hired faculty, and junior faculty (2 years or less at current group). Each group was responsible for inviting appropriate faculty and providing clinical coverage as needed. There were 7 participants from each group for a total of 21 participants. The total cost for materials, administrative support, food, and meeting space was $1550.
A total of 19 of the 21 (90%) junior faculty/fellow participants completed an anonymous online survey. All sessions were rated between very good and excellent, with an average score of 4.4 on a 5 point Likert scale. The most popular sessions were “Optimizing Clinical Success and Reasoning” (4.8) and “Finding your Niche” (4.7). Overall, participants highly valued the program using the same 5 point Likert scale and strongly agreed to the following: taught relevant content (4.9), supported professional development (4.9), developed community (4.8), promoted camaraderie (4.8). Survey respondents unanimously recommended the “Faculty Boot Camp” to future new faculty (19/19, 100%) and felt integrating different hospitalist groups added value to the experience (19/19, 100%) commenting that the integrated approach fostered a sense of community, promoted networking, and broadened perspectives.
Conclusions:
The 3-Site Boot Camp can be a model for inter-group faculty development to teach core concepts important to early career hospitalists. Co-sponsored faculty development amongst local hospitalist groups can be a cost effective way to leverage resources and a unique way to breakdown silos and foster collaboration.