Overview and assessment of a full-time family medicine faculty development fellowship

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Part-time faculty development (FD) fellowships help faculty become successful and effective teachers in medicine. Full-time FD fellowships provide a unique and promising model to train and retain high-quality faculty. This article presents an overview of a well-established, full-time FD fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh and the results from a survey of its graduates regarding fellowship experiences and their career trajectories. METHODS: A 29-item questionnaire was sent to all graduates who completed the University of Pittsburgh St Margaret Faculty Development Fellowship from 1982 and 2014. Questions covered motivation for pursuing the fellowship, explored fellowship experiences, and examined its impact on career and professional development. We present descriptive frequencies and common themes identified from qualitative data from physician respondents. RESULTS: Fifty-two of the 69 physicians surveyed responded (75.2% response rate). Many completed a 2-year fellowship (n=32, 61.5%). Nearly two-thirds of graduates had an educator position as their first (n=34, 65.4%) and current (n=30, 62.5%) job. Graduates reported a mean fellowship satisfaction score of 8.83 (SD 1.74) on a 10-point scale. Research-related activities and professional development skills were identified as being the most useful/valuable aspects of the fellowship. CONCLUSIONS: Fellowship graduates were highly satisfied with their training and had a high retention rate in academic positions. Our findings can guide FD fellowship program design and address the needs of future and current educators in medicine.