Where Do We Go From Here? An Inventory of Publicly Available Data About Educator Academies, Medical Education Departments, and Offices of Medical Education.

ABSTRACT: With the recent widespread growth and interest among medical educators, analysis of how departments of medical education are structured and their intersection with existing structures within the same institution, such as an office of medical education and/or academy of educators, is warranted. Based on a review of the literature, the authors determined there was a need for an inventory of what medical schools have to offer their faculty, whether it be an office, an academy, or a department. This project sought to inventory the current structures of medical education departments, offices, and academies at U.S. medical schools to explore reporting structure, functions, and characteristics of these entities. Data were extracted from the A Snapshot of Medical Student Education in the United States and Canada: Reports From 145 Schools, published in 2020 in the journal Academic Medicine, for each reporting institution. This led to exploration of medical school websites to catalog institutional structures. Data collected in this inventory demonstrate the range of structures used by medical schools to offer faculty support for their work as teachers and educational researchers. The hypothesis was that departments of medical education would be the least prevalent structures identified in U.S. medical schools, which was indeed a finding. Although the search yielded considerable data for the inventory, there is a dearth of published literature describing current models and characteristics of these different entities. Significant difficulties were encountered locating information clearly delineating roles and responsibilities of each entity on many medical schools' public-facing web pages. Findings are significant because they underscore the challenges medical education leaders have in obtaining information to research, compare, select, and design the administrative model(s) best suited to support faculty educators at their institution. Future work should include creating a detailed catalogue with descriptive information supplied by schools.

Test Anxiety Among US Medical Students: A Review of the Current Literature.

Purpose: Medical students experience anxiety at higher rates than the general public and many are uniquely affected by additional test anxiety throughout their medical education. Although test anxiety has been studied for decades, little evidence has been published suggesting interventions improve examination performance in medical education. Therefore, we set out to review the current literature to elucidate efforts so far and establish trends in research. Methods: Databases searched included PubMed, EMBASE, PsychINFO, ERIC, SCOPUS, and CINAHL. English language articles published between 2010 and 2021 were loaded into a reference manager to screen out duplicate articles. During the full-text screen and data extraction phase, reference lists were also inspected to identify additional articles for inclusion in the study. Results: Of 883 studies identified, 860 were excluded resulting in 22 studies for extraction and analysis. First-year (n = 15) and second-year (n = 12) students were primarily tested. Less than 10 included third- or fourth-year students. Self-help and wellness interventions were employed, though interventions ranged from dog therapy to deep breathing techniques to fish oil supplementation. Test anxiety was evaluated using self-report questionnaires, such as the Westside Test Anxiety Scale, Beck Anxiety Inventory, and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. None of the studies reported improved examination scores. Conclusion: This review identifies a variety of measurement tools and interventions attempting to mitigate test anxiety. As far as improving examination performance, none of the interventions reported was successful. Further research addressing test anxiety that results in improved medical student academic performance should be conducted and also use established assessment tools.

Association Between In-Training Exam Scores and Clinical Exposure During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

BACKGROUND: We sought to evaluate changes in In-Training Examination (ITE) scores and associations with clinical work during the COVID-19 pandemic. We hypothesized that residents saw a decrease in clinical encounters during the pandemic and that this would be associated with smaller gains in ITE scores. METHODS: We compared ITE score changes with data on patient notes for three classes of pediatric residents at four residency programs: one not exposed to the pandemic during their intern year who entered residency in 2018, one partially exposed to COVID-19 in March of their intern year (2019-2020), and one that was fully exposed to the pandemic, starting residency in June of 2020. RESULTS: ITE scores on average improved from the PGY1 to PGY2 year in the "no covid" and "partial COVID" cohorts. The "full COVID" cohort had little to no improvement, on average. The total number of patient encounters was not associated with a change in ITE scores from PGY1 to PGY2. There was a small but statistically significant association between change in ITE score and number of inpatient H+P notes. CONCLUSIONS: A drop in ITE scores occurred in pediatric residents who entered residency during the COVID-19 pandemic. This change was largely unrelated to clinical encounter number changes.

Exploring Career Choice Among Black Psychiatry Interns: an Exploratory Qualitative Study.

OBJECTIVE: Relative to the Black American population size, there is an underrepresentation of Black psychiatrists in the USA. In order to address this issue, it is important to explore factors that contribute to Black medical students' decision to pursue a career in psychiatry. METHODS: First-year psychiatry residents who identify as Black (N = 7) were interviewed. Career Construction Theory provided a structured framework for the interview process. For qualitative analysis of data, codes were assigned to reflect concepts and develop themes. RESULTS: All participants mentioned the impact of being a Black psychiatrist in the Black community, the influence of strong female role models on their life, and the importance of the fit between their personality and the work done within psychiatry. The majority of interviewees identified macro-level and cultural events that had influenced them and discussed a desire for advocacy and the influence of Black role models, perseverance, and the importance of work-life balance. CONCLUSION: This qualitative study identified many influential factors that were deemed important to Black interns in their decision to pursue a residency in psychiatry. With the information learned from these interviews, educators within psychiatry can bolster their support of Black medical students, encourage pursuit of a career in psychiatry, and ultimately, work toward reducing disparities in psychiatric care. Future research should examine additional collective notions of career decision-making.

Motivators and barriers for rural community preceptors in teaching: A qualitative study.

PURPOSE: Increasing challenges in recruiting and retaining community-based teaching physicians (e.g., community preceptors) call for a better understanding of motivators and barriers community preceptors perceive in their teaching role. Given the importance of medical school partnerships with community-based sites for student training, it is essential to understand the perspectives of community preceptors as teaching physicians in a context away from the medical school, such as rural, and the factors affecting their career choice to engage in teaching while practising medicine. METHODS: We conducted semi-structured interviews with rural community preceptors and used open coding to conceptualise data and axial coding to connect codes into categories. We used the socio-cognitive career theory framework to organise categories into themes. RESULTS: Eleven rural community preceptors from two medical schools participated. Specialties included family medicine, internal medicine and paediatrics; clinical practice and teaching experience ranged from 3-36 and 2-29 years, respectively. Readiness for teaching ('self-efficacy') was pivotal in community preceptors' decision to teach and derived largely from vicarious learning from teaching attendings in medical school or residency; social persuasion and encouragement from clinical partners; and their accomplishments as practising physicians. However, limited faculty development, incomplete knowledge of expectations, disengagement from the medical school and lack of current mentors hindered their self-confidence. Teaching fulfilled their aspirations ('outcome expectations') to give back to the profession, but they felt undervalued and disconnected from other clinician educators. Teaching increased job satisfaction, but clinical workload, and financial impact impeded their goals for achieving excellence ('performance'). CONCLUSIONS: Self-efficacy was a pivotal motivator in rural community preceptors' decision to teach. Role models from early training inspired them to teach. Internal awards sustained teaching efforts. Future research should explore structural barriers influencing rural community preceptors' teaching experiences to better support their career choice to become medical educators.

Educational Scholarship: A Modern Guide to Dissemination.

Dissemination of medical education scholarship is important for individual professional development and advancement of the field. With growing interest in medical education research, the venues for dissemination have grown in number and variety. In this article, we describe a general approach to meaningful dissemination of medical education scholarship, reviewing considerations for selection of a venue on the basis of type of project, personal and professional goals, and intended audience. After these overall principles, we provide an overview of specific venues, with equal emphasis on traditional manuscript-style submissions and newer digital opportunities for dissemination. Finally, we review tips for effective scholarly writing with a target venue in mind.

Use of Sociodemographic Information in Clinical Vignettes of Multiple-Choice Questions for Preclinical Medical Students.

Purpose: This paper aims to characterize the use of demographic data in multiple-choice questions from a commercial preclinical question bank and determine if there is appropriate use of different distractors. Background: Multiple-choice questions for medical students often include vignettes describing a patient's presentation to help guide students to a diagnosis, but overall patterns of usage between different types of nonmedical patient information in question stems have yet to be determined. Methods: Three hundred eighty of 453 randomly selected questions were included for analysis after determining they contained a clinical vignette and required a diagnosis. The vignettes and following explanations were then examined for the presence/absence of 11 types of demographic information, including age, sex/gender, and socioeconomic status. We compared both the usage frequency and relevance between the 11 information types. Results: Most information types were present in less than 10% of clinical vignettes, but age and sex/gender were present in over 95% of question stems. Over 50% of questions included irrelevant information about age and sex/gender, but 75% of questions did not include any irrelevant information of other types. Patient weight and environmental exposures were significantly more likely to be relevant than age or sex/gender. Discussion: Students using the questions in this study will frequently gain practice incorporating age and sex/gender into their clinical reasoning while receiving little exposure to other demographic information. Based on our findings, we posit that questions could include more irrelevant information, outside age and sex/gender, to better approximate real clinical scenarios and ensure students do not overvalue certain demographic data. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40670-023-01778-z.

Educational Relative Value Units as a Measure of Academic Productivity: A Systematic Review.

INTRODUCTION: Academic Health Centers (AHCs) have complex, often competing missions. Many have developed mission-based management (MBM) systems to support their clinical and non-clinical missions. There are limited data on MBM use for their educational missions. Our scoping review explored how AHCs employed such systems.  Materials and methods: Arksey and O'Malley's six-stage framework guided our review. Based on pre-defined criteria, English language articles from PubMed, EMBASE, SCOPUS, and the Healthcare Administration Database published between 2010 and 2020 were loaded into a reference manager. The search included all health professions education schools. Articles were excluded if they were review articles, commentaries, or clearly did not involve funding for education. From the final list of selected articles, data were extracted using a data extraction sheet we developed. Two researchers reviewed each article again to ensure extracted data were reported consistently and with sufficient detail.  Results: Of the 1729 manuscripts identified, 35 met inclusion criteria. Sixteen (46%) contained data in some form but did not have a formal methods section describing the specific approach to data collection and analysis. Moreover, there was marked variability in how educational effort was quantified, what counted as educational effort (educational scholarship versus teaching) and the impacts of such quantification (departmental funding versus individual faculty incentives). None of the studies reported on the impact on faculty promotion. Faculty satisfaction with the system was reported in seven studies (20%) and was generally positive. CONCLUSIONS: A systematic description of how systems were developed to support the educational mission was lacking. Clear goals, methods of development, uniform data on educational productivity and quality, and program evaluation were not defined by most articles. This lack of process clarity presents a challenge, but more importantly an opportunity for academic health centers to unify efforts and continue to further their educational mission.

Faculty bridging individual and organizational resilience: results of a qualitative analysis.

BACKGROUND: Medical student burnout and anxiety has received growing attention in the past decade. The culture of competition and assessment has resulted in increasing stress levels amongst medical students, causing a decline in their academic performance and overall mental health. The objective of this qualitative analysis was to characterize recommendations from educational experts to aid students' academic progress. METHODS: At an international meeting in 2019, worksheets were completed by medical educators during a panel discussion. Participants responded to four scenarios representing common challenges medical students face in school (eg. Postponing Step 1, failing clerkships, etc.). For each case, participants addressed what students, faculty and medical schools could do to mitigate the challenge. Inductive thematic analysis was conducted by two authors followed by deductive categorization using an individual-organizational resilience model. RESULTS: Across the four cases, common suggestions made for students, faculty and medical schools were aligned to a resilience model representing the complex interplay between individuals and organizations and the impact on student wellbeing. DISCUSSION: Using suggestions from medical educators from across the US, we were able to identify recommendations for students, faculty, and medical schools to help students succeed in medical school. By applying a model of resilience, faculty serve as a critical bridge to connect students to the medical school administration. Our findings also support a pass/fail curriculum to ease the competition and burden students place on themselves.

Near-Peer Teaching in Radiology Symposia: A Success Story in Residents as Teachers.

INTRODUCTION: Peer learning and near-peer teaching have been described in many specialties, less so in Radiology. We present near-peer teaching whereby residents present a series of didactic sessions at the course outset in the form of "symposia" and perform a scholarly activity in the form of teaching. We aim to demonstrate how near-peer teaching in symposia front-loaded within an introductory radiology course can improve medical student satisfaction. METHOD: A total of 169 students were enrolled over a period of 3 years, 55 before (2017-2018) and 114 (2018-2020) after the introduction of the symposium. Anonymous course evaluations were collected from all students. In addition, 240 fourth-year medical students who also attended symposium lectures received satisfaction surveys in 2019 and 2020. RESULTS: All (169/169, 100%) students taking the course evaluated it. Overall evaluation scores rose from 8.3/10 to 9.0/10 post-symposia. Among student satisfaction surveys, 89/240 (37%) specifically commented on symposia; 91% (80/89) of those found symposia very or extremely informative. 29/71 (41%) of all residents were able to participate in the symposia, 20/29 in multiple years throughout residency, allowing them to fulfill the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education interpersonal and communication skills core competencies and meet scholarly activity requirements. CONCLUSION: Near-peer teaching in the form of resident-taught interactive didactics grouped in symposia can have a positive outcome on medical student satisfaction.

Supporting DACA recipients and international students pursuing careers in medicine: A pilot program for advisors.

The United States (U.S.) health professions are becoming more invested in diversity. Information on students who are undocumented or recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), and international students on student visas entering U.S. medical education is sparse. Few programs offer targeted training for educators on advising students who are undocumented, DACA recipients, or on a visa. We piloted a virtual program for pre-health advisors and educators on supporting students who are undocumented or recipients of DACA and international students transitioning to medical school. Program evaluation consisted of an anonymous retrospective pre-post survey. Of 117 registrants, 40% completed the survey. Prior to the program, most participants indicated that they were unsure or thought students were ineligible for financial aid during medical school if they were DACA recipients (40% unsure, 26.6% ineligible) or on a student visa (30% unsure, 30% ineligible). After the program, most respondents reported students were eligible for merit scholarship or private loans with DACA (66.6% eligible) or an international student visa (60% eligible). Perceptions of students with DACA being able to lawfully practice medicine in the U.S. changed from pre-program (43.3% unsure or not eligible) to post-program (90% eligible). Participants indicated they were more confident advising DACA recipients and international students post program. This virtual program was an effective step in providing support for advisors who are assisting non-citizen or permanent resident students start their careers in healthcare. Our findings show the need for more information on advising students who are DACA recipients, undocumented, or on student visas prior to matriculating to medical school and throughout training.

Evaluating situational judgment test use and diversity in admissions at a southern US medical school.

INTRODUCTION: Situational judgment tests have been adopted by medical schools to assess decision-making and ethical characteristics of applicants. These tests are hypothesized to positively affect diversity in admissions by serving as a noncognitive metric of evaluation. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the performance of the Computer-based Assessment for Sampling Personal Characteristics (CASPer) scores in relation to admissions interview evaluations. METHODS: This was a cohort study of applicants interviewing at a public school of medicine in the southeastern United States in 2018 and 2019. Applicants took the CASPer test prior to their interview day. In-person interviews consisted of a traditional interview and multiple-mini-interview (MMI) stations. Between subjects, analyses were used to compare scores from traditional interviews, MMIs, and CASPer across race, ethnicity, and gender. RESULTS: 1,237 applicants were interviewed (2018: n = 608; 2019: n = 629). Fifty-seven percent identified as female. Self-identified race/ethnicity included 758 White, 118 Black or African-American, 296 Asian, 20 Native American or Alaskan Native, 1 Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, and 44 No response; 87 applicants identified as Hispanic. Black or African-American, Native American or Alaskan Native, and Hispanic applicants had significantly lower CASPer scores than other applicants. Statistically significant differences in CASPer percentiles were identified for gender and race; however, between subjects, comparisons were not significant. CONCLUSIONS: The CASPer test showed disparate scores across racial and ethnic groups in this cohort study and may not contribute to minimizing bias in medical school admissions.

Commentary on Ultrasound Instruction in Undergraduate Medical Education: Perspective from Two Students.

Background: Ultrasound integration in undergraduate medical education (UME) has been a focused endeavor in recent years. According to the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine, more than a third of all US medical schools have adopted a focused ultrasound training program for medical students. Medical student perspectives on best practices in ultrasound education are lacking in the literature. Curricula Experiences: Two students' reflections are presented regarding two different didactic approaches, flipped classroom and self-study learning models, to teaching ultrasound in the pre-clinical medical education curriculum. Students present reflections on these didactic approaches to facilitate further improvement in ultrasound education curricula. Discussion: The self-directed learning model enabled students to learn foundational ultrasound exam techniques efficiently in a low-stress environment and subsequently optimized the efficiency of later faculty-led learning events. However, we noted that in both the flipped classroom and self-study learning models of education, the training on basic physical properties of ultrasound, tissue characteristics, and probe manipulation was limited. Conclusion: A self-study learning model ultrasound curricula improves perceived learning efficiency and student confidence, especially when followed by faculty-guided didactics and scanning opportunities. We suggest a framework for ultrasound education curricula that includes components of both formats of ultrasound education alongside faculty-led sessions as an ideal model of ultrasound education. Further, we propose the added benefit of inanimate object scanning to optimize students' knowledge of waveform physics (image acquisition and physical properties of materials) early in the ultrasound education process.

Faculty Development for Community Preceptors: a Narrative Review of the Literature.

Community teaching physicians (i.e., community preceptors) have assumed an important role in medical education. More than half of medical schools use community settings to train medical students. Whether community preceptors are well prepared for their teaching responsibilities is unknown. In addition, best practice for faculty development (FD) of this population of preceptors has not been defined. The authors conducted a narrative review of the literature to describe FD programs for community preceptors that may be helpful to medical schools for future planning. Many databases were searched from their establishment to May 2022. Studies that described FD programs for community preceptors were included. Data were organized according to program aim, duration, setting, participants, content, and outcomes. The Communities of Practice theoretical framework was used to present findings. From a total of 6308 articles, 326 were eligible for full review, 21 met inclusion criteria. Sixty-seven percent (14/21) conducted a needs assessment; 57% (12/21) were developed by the medical school; 81% (17/21) included only community preceptors. Number of participants ranged from six to 1728. Workshops were often (24%, 5/21) used and supplemented by role-play, online modules, or instructional videos. Few programs offered opportunities to practice with standardized learners. Content focused primarily on teaching skills. Five programs offered CME credits as an incentive for engagement. Participant surveys were most often used for program evaluation. Learner evaluations and focus groups were used less often. Participants reported satisfaction and improvement in teaching skills after attending the program. Faculty development for community preceptors is primarily delivered through workshops and online materials, although direct observations of teaching with feedback from FD faculty and learners may be more helpful for training. Future studies need to focus on the long-term impact of FD on community preceptors' teaching skills, identity formation as medical educators, and student learning.

Teaching social determinants through geographic information system mapping.

BACKGROUND: Many institutions in undergraduate medical education have developed unique curricula to teach social determinants of health (SDOH). Geographic information system (GIS) mapping is one tool that learners could use to understand our built environment and its correlation with health outcomes through data analysis, visualization and active learning. APPROACH: At the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, medical students participate in a 4-year longitudinal curriculum on social and health systems science with the final year dedicated to self-directed learning. This final year course incorporates a GIS-based online module to help students apply their understanding of the health impacts of SDOH. Students create online maps with simulated patient data and identify 'hotspots' with map overlays using ArcGIS software. Students write reflections on their maps based on the implications of SDOH. Thematic analysis of these reflections identified patterns within the narrative data. EVALUATION: From March 2020 to February 2021, 148 fourth-year medical students participated in the GIS learning module. Five major themes were identified: Explored Social Determinant Topics, Inclusion of Geo-mapping in Curriculum, Utility of Geo-mapping in Healthcare, Future Application of ArcGIS for Personal Use, Impressions of ArcGIS Software. Students showed engagement and interest in the exercise, and responses were overall positive. Responses showed understanding of the application of ArcGIS and demonstrated knowledge of social determinants of health. IMPLICATIONS: A self-directed, active learning online module using GIS mapping offers a generally popular, eye-opening and unique method for teaching SDOH in undergraduate medical education.

Reflections on Part-Time Residency Training, 15-25 Years Later: A Qualitative Study on Wellness and Career Impact.

Phenomenon: While part-time clinical work options are popular for physicians, part-time residency training is uncommon. Some residency training programs have offered trainees the option to complete their training on a modified schedule in the past. These part-time tracks often involved extending training in order to complete equivalent hours on a part-time basis. Having experience with trainees in such programs, we sought to explore the impact of completing residency training part-time on the professional and private lives of physicians. Approach: Between 2019 and 2020, we conducted interviews with physicians who completed portions of their residency training part-time between 1995 and 2005 in our institution's pediatrics, combined medicine-pediatrics, and family medicine programs. Findings: Seven female physicians who completed at least some portion of residency part-time were interviewed. To better characterize their experiences, we chose phenomenology as our analytic framework. Members of the research team independently coded each interview and met to resolve conflicts. Codes were then combined and discussed to determine four overarching themes as reasons and benefits of part-time training: The pursuit of extended-time training, logistics, effects on career trajectory, and wellness. These themes highlighted the utility of part-time training and the need for programmatic support to ensure their success. Insights: Based on our findings, adaptability for training and a sense of agency from their part-time experiences persisted throughout interviewees' careers. Each felt empowered to make career choices that fit their personal and professional needs. These findings suggest further investigation into the benefits of offering time-variable training in residency programs.

Development and Evaluation of a Faculty Teaching Boot Camp Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Introduction Medical faculty often assume teaching responsibilities without formal training in teaching skills. The purpose of this study was to design, implement, and evaluate boot camp workshop training faculty in basic teaching competencies. We also describe the transition to a virtual format necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods The workshop content was derived from a needs assessment survey and discussion with content experts. Four main content areas were identified: setting expectations, giving feedback, evaluating learners, and teaching in specific settings (outpatient clinics, inpatient wards, procedures/surgery, and small groups). The initial boot camp was a four-hour in-person event. The following year, the boot camp was offered via online videoconference. We used a pre-post survey to assess participant reaction and knowledge acquisition from session content. Results A total of 30 local faculty attended the 2020 in-person boot camp, while 105 faculty from across the state attended the 2021 online boot camp. Statistically significant increases in post-knowledge scores were identified for two sessions in the 2020 boot camp and four sessions in 2021. The participants rated both boot camps favorably with no significant difference between the in-person and online presentations for most ratings but were less satisfied with networking opportunities in the online boot camp. Discussion We describe an effective faculty development boot camp teaching core competencies for medical clinician-educators. We were able to leverage the online teleconferencing platform to deliver the content to a larger number of preceptors at distant sites without sacrificing outcomes of participant satisfaction and improvement in knowledge scores. The online model allowed busy clinicians to participate while multitasking. Comments also highlighted the importance of having an engaged moderator during the online event. Conclusions Many medical schools utilize preceptors in distant locations. We demonstrated the feasibility of reaching a much larger and geographically widespread group of clinical preceptors using a virtual format while still showing improvement in knowledge scores relating to workshop content. For future faculty development, we propose that hybrid models with both in-person and virtual components will be effective in meeting the needs of a geographically distributed faculty.

Race, ethnicity, and gender representation in clinical case vignettes: a 20-year comparison between two institutions.

BACKGROUND: The medical case vignette has long been used in medical student education and frequently includes demographic variables such as race, ethnicity and gender. However, inclusion of demographic variables without context may reinforce assumptions and biases. Yet, the absence of race, sexual orientation, and social determinants of health may reinforce a hidden curriculum that reflects cultural blindness. This replication study compared proportions of race, ethnicity, and gender with University of Minnesota (UMN) findings. This study sought to determine if there has been progress in the representation of demographic characteristics in case vignettes. METHODS: University of North Carolina (UNC) case vignettes from 2015-2016 were analyzed and compared to UMN case vignettes from 1996-1998. Data included mentions of race, ethnicity, gender and social determinants of health. RESULTS: In the 278 UNC vignettes, white race was noted in 19.7% of cases, black race was in 7.9% cases, and 76.6% of cases were unspecified. In the 983 UMN vignettes, white race was recorded in 2.85% cases, and black race in 0.41% cases. The institutions were significantly different in the proportion of their cases depicting race (0.20; 95% CI (0.15, 0.25)). Males were represented in the majority of vignettes. DISCUSSION: Comparing case vignettes results from two medical schools suggests that reporting explicit demographic diversity was not significantly different. The findings illustrate that sex was the demographic characteristic consistently described, where males were over-represented. Based on these findings, greater cultural diversity as it intersects with social determinants of health is needed in medical student education.

Mentoring Medical Education Research: Guidelines from a Narrative Review.

Mentorship is critical to develop research scholars. Current literature provides mentorship guidance for biomedical research; however, mentorship for educational research is scarce. We explored literature to offer evidence-based guidance for medical education research mentors. A librarian searched peer-reviewed literature from 2001 to 2021 to identify guidelines for research mentors. Thirty-five articles were included in this narrative review. Our results identified attributes of mentors, overlapping roles, and barriers and benefits of mentoring. The structures and processes related to mentoring are reviewed and applicability to medical education research mentorship is summarized. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40670-022-01565-2.

Eight-Year Investigation of the Impact of the Clerkship Administrator Certificate Program.

INTRODUCTION:  The roles and responsibilities of the administrative staff supporting required clinical medical student experiences have evolved. In 2004, the Association of American Medical Colleges Central Group on Educational Affairs (CGEA) offered for the first time the Clerkship Administrator Certificate Program. This program requires the completion of a series of workshops and a project and results in a certificate. Research related to long-term outcomes of professional development programs such as this is limited. The purpose of our study was to explore the impact this professional development program had on the careers of participants. METHODS:  We conducted a survey of those who completed the qualifying workshops from 2010 to 2018. The survey was based on program content, including questions to explore the self-described impact on their careers. Categorical and scaled data were summarized using descriptive statistics. The realistic evaluation framework was used to guide inductive and deductive content analysis, allowing respondent interpretations and context to define outcomes. RESULTS:  Out of 244 invitations, 50 (20.5%) responded. Of the respondents, 40 still work in medical education. Scaled responses (strongly disagree to strongly agree) were positive. The individual's motivation, departmental climate, and other contextual factors (experience, collaborators, time) impacted workshop participants' ability to complete the certificate program. Those who completed certification noted various forms of recognition locally, ranging from special recognition by the chair, raises, and promotions. Additionally, participants felt more confident and accomplished in their careers. CONCLUSIONS:  Although positively rated, the success of this program had differential outcomes depending on participant contexts. Unintended results for participants completing the program resulted in promotions. Applying the realistic evaluation framework provided insights to improve the program.