Accessible and Adaptable Faculty Development to Support Curriculum Reform in Medical Education

Abstract

Contemporary curricular reform in medical education focuses on areas that current physician-educators were likely not exposed to during medical school, such as interprofessional teamwork; informatics; health care systems improvement; and diversity, equity, and inclusion. Thus, faculty may not be ready to support the planned curricular reform without adequate faculty development to acquire the necessary knowledge and skills. In an era with increasing demands on faculty, new approaches that are flexible and adaptable are needed. The University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine implemented a new curriculum in 2016, which constituted a major curricular overhaul necessitating extensive faculty development. Based on this experience, the author proposes 8 guiding principles for faculty development around curricular reform: (1) create a blueprint to inform design and implementation of faculty development activities; (2) build on existing resources, networks, and communities; (3) target different needs and competency levels for different groups of faculty; (4) encourage cocreation in the workplace; (5) promote collaboration between content experts and faculty developers; (6) tap into faculty's intrinsic motivation for professional development; (7) develop curriculum leaders and faculty developers; and (8) evaluate for continuous improvement. Each of these principles is illustrated with examples, and when available, supported by references to relevant literature. Considering the current wave of curricular reform, both at the undergraduate and graduate levels, these principles can be useful for other institutions.