The Need and Curricula for Health Professions Education Graduate Programs

Abstract

With the fundamental shifts in the delivery of health care and overwhelming concern about the health of populations around the globe, there is widespread agreement that the reform of health professions education is essential across the continuum from prelicensure through continuing professional development (Frenk et al., 2010). These reforms have sparked an explosive growth in graduate programs in health professions education that prepare clinicians for teaching and leadership roles in higher education, clinical settings, community settings, professional associations, and regulatory agencies. This chapter provides the background of the changing context of health-care delivery and the need for reforming health professions education (HPE) across the continuum. An overview of the growth and curricula of graduate programs designed to prepare the health professions education workforce is discussed, along with the rationale for including foundational adult and continuing education theory and research in the curricula of graduate programs. The chapter concludes with a discussion of future trends in HPE graduate programs.

Health professions education cohort programs: A case study of pivoting from in‐person to online learning in cohort‐based programs

“…Health professions encompass a variety of medical professions that include allied health roles (technicians, radiographers, and program coordinators), nurses, physicians, and pharmacists. HPE focuses on the development of health professions educators (Cervero & Daley, 2018). For example, physician educators develop a knowledge base of learning theory and are provided the opportunity to apply theory to their practice when working with medical students, residents, and fellows.…”

“…Health professions education (HPE) has likewise experienced a significant transition. The traditional focus of HPE programs is the development of teaching and leadership skills of a diverse set of healthcare workers (Cervero & Daley, 2018). These programs have become more common over the last 20 years, and while online and blended learning have also become more common during this time, face‐to‐face learning continued to be the most common modality for educational programs until the pandemic caused national stay‐at‐home orders and lockdowns.…”

Integrating Critical Consciousness in Health Professions Education Through Leadership Education and Mentoring

“…HPE programs focus on the development of healthcare workers as teachers and leaders in clinical, educational, and research settings and over the past 20 years have become more common (Cervero & Daly, 2018). Students in these programs include allied health professionals, nurses, physicians, and pharmacists.…”

“…It posits that it is the responsibility of providers to examine the ways in which culture is situated within larger systems or societal structures while examining relational aspects and power within the patient and provider interactions (Gustafson & Reitmanova, 2010). Expanding the curricula to include philosophical approaches to education and critical perspectives as they are understood in the field of adult education (Cervero & Daly, 2018) can facilitate the development of a critical consciousness. Developing mentoring experiences that reinforce the application of critical consciousness in healthcare can help build a cadre of leaders and educators who consider the links to structural and institutional racism, the role it plays in SDOH, and how it impacts community and individual health and health outcomes.…”

Developing Entrustable Professional Activities for Doctoral Graduates in Health Professions Education: Obtaining a National Consensus in Iran

“…There are also some programs that did not follow a structured curriculum, but candidates complete a number of publishable research projects through supervision and apprenticeships [4]. The most important goals of the doctoral programs in HPE are to prepare students to conduct robust research, to pursue a teaching career at academic institutions and to identify complex problems in educational systems and produce innovative solutions aimed to improve the quality of life at individual, organizations, and society levels [5][6][7][8].…”