Emergency Medicine Clerkship Directors: Current Work Force

Abstract

IntroductionThe emergency medicine clerkship director serves an important role in the education of medical students. The authors sought to update the demographic and academic profile of the emergency medicine clerkship director.MethodsWe developed and implemented a comprehensive questionnaire, and used it to survey all emergency medicine clerkship directors at United States allopathic medical schools accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education. We analyzed and interpreted data using descriptive statistics.ResultsOne hundred seven of 133 (80.4%) emergency medicine clerkship directors completed the survey. Clerkship Director’s mean age was 39.7 years (SD-7.2), they were more commonly male 68.2%, of Caucasian racial backgrounds and at the instructor or assistant professor (71.3%) level. The mean number of years of experience as clerkship director was 5.5 (SD-4.5). The mean amount of protected time for clerkship administration reported by respondents was 7.3 hours weekly (SD-5.1), with the majority (53.8%) reporting 6 or more hours of protected time per week. However, 32.7% of emergency medicine clerkship directors reported not having any protected time for clerkship administration. Most clerkship directors (91.6%) held additional teaching responsibilities beyond their clerkship and many were involved in educational research (49.5%). The majority (79.8%), reported being somewhat or very satisfied with their job as clerkship director.ConclusionMost clerkship directors were junior faculty at the instructor or assistant professor rank and were involved with a variety of educational endeavors beyond the clerkship.

Evolving roles of clerkship directors: have expectations changed?

“…This coupled with the self-defined view of excellence in this role as either completing all necessary tasks or completing all tasks while participating in innovation and scholarship may lead to faculty burn out and turn over [21,22]. Add to that conflicting perspectives of who clerkship directors should report places them in a challenging role, particularly since several of ACE's member organizations report clerkship directors are junior faculty [23][24][25][26]. Although only a suggested skill by workshop participants, the authors believe budget negotiation skills may be a needed skill for clerkship directors to ensure adequate resourcing.…”

A workforce study of emergency medicine medical education fellowship directors: Describing roles, responsibilities, support, and priorities

“…14 Multiple workforce studies of EM clerkship directors resulted in a "Statement of Purpose" by Wald and colleagues, defining the important role clerkship directors have within EM education programs. [15][16][17][18] Our study adds to this growing body of literature advocating for appropriate resource allocation to leaders of EM education programs.…”

Professional Development Needs of Clerkship Directors

“…Data were collected through the 2021 cross-sectional Council of Academic Family Medicine's Educational Research Alliance (CERA) annual survey of FM CDs. 8 In 2021, 147 US and 16 Canadian FM educators from accredited medical schools were emailed the survey between April 29, 2021 and May 28, 2021. Respondents specified the number of years as faculty and as CDs, we set 8 years (≤8 or >8yrs) as the demarcation for status (junior faculty/senior faculty and junior CD/senior CD) in alignment with vernacular used by the Association of American Medical Colleges criteria for participation in the Early Career Women Faculty Leadership Seminar.…”

“…7 Of emergency medicine CDs surveyed, 47% had formal preparation for their role (with 36% receiving brief training from senior faculty and 11% extensive mentorship) while 10% received a written job description and another 10% received a clerkship guide/handbook. 8 2 This study describes professional development experienced and valued by family medicine (FM) CDs for success in the role, and has not been described in previous literature.…”