In a process that has evolved over the last four years, the Emory University Emergency Medicine Education Committee has developed an ''academic attending'' teaching shift incorporating a formatted lecture series with a clinical evaluation exercise (CEE). The program structures the approach to clinical teaching at the bedside, provides an objective clinical evaluation tool specific to emergency medicine residents, and provides targeted learning for medical students and residents rotating in the emergency department (ED). The CEE instrument was designed to be quick and efficient, satisfy requirements of assessment of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) general competencies, and incorporate the language of the ''Model of the Clinical Practice of Emergency Medicine.'' The original program called for unstructured bedside teaching three days a week, by faculty freed from clinical duties, combined with a limited series of introductory emergency medicine lectures. The program proved more successful when concentrated in a once weekly structured educational program. The prepared, repeating lecture series has been expanded to include many of the most common ED presenting chief complaints and has significantly advanced a curriculum for medical students and visiting interns. A CEE was developed to evaluate and provide immediate feedback to residents on many of the core ACGME competencies. The CEE has been successfully used to structure the bedside educational encounter. This dedicated non-clinical ''teaching'' shift appears effective in meeting the educational goals of the authors' academic ED. This is a description of the program and its evolution; the program has not been formally evaluated.

Purpose: Women lag behind men in several key academic indicators, such as advancement, retention, and securing leadership positions. Although reasons for these disparities are multifactorial, policies that do not support work-life integration contribute to the problem. The objective of this descriptive study was to compare the faculty work-life policies among medical schools in the Big Ten conference. Methods: Each institution's website was accessed in order to assess its work-life policies in the following areas: maternity leave, paternity leave, adoption leave, extension of probationary period, part-time appointments, parttime benefits (specifically health insurance), child care options, and lactation policy. Institutions were sent requests to validate the online data and supply additional information if needed. Results: Each institution received an overall score and subscale scores for family leave policies and part-time issues. Data were verified by the human resources office at 8 of the 10 schools. Work-life policies varied among Big Ten schools, with total scores between 9.25 and 13.5 (possible score: 0-21; higher scores indicate greater flexibility). Subscores were not consistently high or low within schools. Conclusions: Comparing the flexibility of faculty work-life policies in relation to other schools will help raise awareness of these issues and promote more progressive policies among less progressive schools. Ultimately, flexible policies will lead to greater equity and institutional cultures that are conducive to recruiting, retaining, and advancing diverse faculty.

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