Academic Career Development in Geriatric Fellowship Training

Abstract

Career development is rarely formalized in the curricula of geriatric fellowship programs, and the training of new generations of academic leaders is challenging in the 1 year of fellowship training. To effectively prepare fellows for academic leadership, the University of Rochester's Division of Geriatrics, in collaboration with the Warner School of Graduate Education, created a yearlong course to achieve excellence in teaching and career development during the 1-year geriatric fellowship. Nine interdisciplinary geriatric medicine, dentistry, and psychiatry fellows completed the course in its initial year (2005/06). As participants, fellows gained the knowledge and experience to successfully develop and implement educational initiatives in various formats. Fellows acquired teaching and leadership skills necessary to succeed as clinician-educators in an academic setting and to communicate effectively with patients, families, and colleagues. Fellows completed a series of individual and group education projects, including academic portfolio development, curriculum vitae revision, abstract submission and poster presentation at national meetings, lay lecture series development, and geriatric grand rounds presentation. One hundred percent of fellows reported that the course positively affected their career development, with six of nine fellows choosing academic careers. The course provided opportunities to teach and assess all six of the Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education core competencies. This academic career development course was intended to prepare geriatric fellows as the next generation of academic leaders as clinician-teacher-scholars. It could set a new standard for academic development during fellowship training and provide a model for national dissemination in other geriatric and subspecialty fellowship programs.

Writing Abstracts and Developing Posters for National Meetings

“…Oral presentations, on the other hand, were preferred for developing a national reputation and sharing important findings most effectively. For all of these reasons, many academic centers have developed highly effective programs for trainees and junior faculty to help encourage submissions 10,11 so it is wise to seek out such programs if they exist in your home institution. …”

Teaching Geriatric Fellows How to Teach: A Needs Assessment Targeting Geriatrics Fellowship Program Directors

“…There are published examples of fellowship programs implementing parts of a teaching‐to‐teach curriculum during the first year of clinical training. A yearlong course to achieve excellence in teaching and career development was successfully implemented at the University of Rochester with the addition of just 3 hours of didactics per month plus project time . Another example comes from the Duke University Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development, which incorporated 10 educational skills seminars into a geriatrics grand round series for fellows and faculty .…”

Multicultural Grand Rounds: Competency-Based Training Model for Clinical Psychology Graduate Students

“…Moreover, a single presenter typically leads these events. Presenting at Grand Rounds has been noted as a form of professional currency and a means of advancement for junior colleagues (Medina-Walpole, Fonzi, & Katz, 2007). In sum, the Grand Rounds model has been shown to be an effective method for facilitating case-based learning of clinical information and enhancing professionalism.…”