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Faculty Development to Enhance Humanistic Teaching and Role Modeling: A Collaborative Study at Eight Institutions

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Abstract

Background

There is increased emphasis on practicing humanism in medicine but explicit methods for faculty development in humanism are rare.

Objective

We sought to demonstrate improved faculty teaching and role modeling of humanistic and professional values by participants in a multi-institutional faculty development program as rated by their learners in clinical settings compared to contemporaneous controls.

Design

Blinded learners in clinical settings rated their clinical teachers, either participants or controls, on the previously validated 10-item Humanistic Teaching Practices Effectiveness (HTPE) questionnaire.

Participants

Groups of 7-9 participants at 8 academic medical centers completed an 18-month faculty development program. Participating faculty were chosen by program facilitators at each institution on the basis of being promising teachers, willing to participate in the longitudinal faculty development program.

Intervention

Our 18-month curriculum combined experiential learning of teaching skills with critical reflection using appreciative inquiry narratives about their experiences as teachers and other reflective discussions.

Main Measures

The main outcome was the aggregate score of the ten items on the questionnaire at all institutions.

Key Results

The aggregate score favored participants over controls (P = 0.019) independently of gender, experience on faculty, specialty area, and/or overall teaching skills.

Conclusions

Longitudinal, intensive faculty development that employs experiential learning and critical reflection likely enhances humanistic teaching and role modeling. Almost all participants completed the program. Results are generalizable to other schools.

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Acknowledgments

The corresponding author, William T. Branch, Jr., MD, MACP, FAACH, had full access to all of the data in the study and takes full responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis.

Contributors

None.

Funders

This study was supported by a grant from the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations. The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations had no role in the design and conduct of the study, collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data, or the preparation, review or approval of the manuscript.

Previous Presentations

Presented at the Symposium on Health Care Communication, Hong Kong, June 2013.

Ethical Approval

The study received approval or a waiver from the Institutional Review Board of each participating institution.

Conflict of Interest

One of the authors delivered expert witness testimony unrelated to this study.

The other authors declared they have no conflicts of interest.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Emory University School of Medicine, 49 Jesse Hill Jr. Dr., Atlanta, GA, 30303, USA

    William T. Branch Jr. MD & George Mathew MD

  2. University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Calvin L. Chou MD, PhD

  3. University of California, San Diego, CA, USA

    Neil J. Farber MD

  4. University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA, USA

    David Hatem MD

  5. University of California, Davis, CA, USA

    Craig Keenan MD

  6. Saint Francis Care and University of Connecticut School of Medicine, Farmington, CT, USA

    Gregory Makoul PhD

  7. University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA

    Mariah Quinn MD

  8. Georgia Regents University Augusta Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, GA, USA

    William Salazar MD

  9. Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA

    Jane Sillman MD

  10. David Geffen School of Medicine, The University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Margaret Stuber MD & LuAnn Wilkerson Ed.D

  11. Statistical consultant, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Michael Fost MS

Authors
  1. William T. Branch Jr. MD
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  2. Calvin L. Chou MD, PhD
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  3. Neil J. Farber MD
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  4. David Hatem MD
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  5. Craig Keenan MD
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  6. Gregory Makoul PhD
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  7. Mariah Quinn MD
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  8. William Salazar MD
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  9. Jane Sillman MD
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  10. Margaret Stuber MD
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  11. LuAnn Wilkerson Ed.D
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  12. George Mathew MD
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  13. Michael Fost MS
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to William T. Branch Jr. MD.

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Branch, W.T., Chou, C.L., Farber, N.J. et al. Faculty Development to Enhance Humanistic Teaching and Role Modeling: A Collaborative Study at Eight Institutions. J GEN INTERN MED 29, 1250–1255 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-014-2927-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-014-2927-5

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