A. Chaudry1, J. Karges2, S. Burns3,1
1Langston University, School of Physical Therapy, Langston, Oklahoma, United States, 2University of South Dakota, Physical Therapy, Vermillion, South Dakota, United States, 3Langston University, School of Physical Therapy, Langston, United States
Background: Physiotherapy education programs are in consistent to recruit ‘qualified’ faculty with academic degrees and clinical experience. However, research indicates that the clinician turned faculty member faces significant challenges in making the transition from clinician to educator. One mechanism to ease this transition is through mentor-ship of the clinician turned faculty member. The mentor-ship process though can be challenging and stressful both for mentors and men-tees. The root cause may be the men-tee's lack of prior formalized training in adult education exacerbated by minimal understanding of unique attributes of academia such as promotion & tenure, grant-writing, research, faculty responsibilities, and institutional hierarchy.
Purpose: The need to retain experienced clinicians as academic faculty in two remote rural physiotherapy education (RPTE) programs that experienced extreme challenges in faculty recruitment/retention led RPTE programs to individualize faculty mentoring to foster continued faculty growth while meeting institutional goal of faculty retention and continuity in student instruction. This presentation describes a unique individualized multi-strategy approach to cultivating novice educators into senior academicians through utilization of professional indoctrination, targeted goal setting, one-on-one mentoring, multi-level teaching assessments and feedback, re-aligning, specialty certification, and self-reflection.
Methods: The individualized multi-strategy approach was adopted by both physiotherapy programs with some program specific modifications and included: (i) acculturating faculty member to Commission on Accreditation of Physical Therapy Education’s (CAPTE) standards through mandatory attendance at CAPTE self-study workshop with follow-up peer meetings with Dean. (ii) working with faculty member to articulate an annual Professional Development Plan with mutually developed progressive goals for faculty growth in teaching, service, and scholarship with mid-year follow-up while addressing program needs. (iii) assignment of faculty mentor who served in flexible roles/faculty men-tee's pre-identified need. Mentor served as course director, engaged faculty member in role reversal by serving as lab instructor or teaching assistant, assisted with exam question construction or designing lab practicals, inducted men-tee to committee service, and assisted with promotion & tenure portfolio creation. (iv) Junior-Senior Faculty collaboration in research and grantsmanship training focused on understanding institutional review board policies & procedures, developing a budget, and grant writing and submission process. (v) Self-reflection and assessment of PDP goals was formally conducted at year-end and discussed informally with mentor & formally with Dean.
Results: Both programs reported overwhelming success with faculty retention (program one average for seven faculty =10 years and program two average for eight faculty = 8.5 years). Faculty professional growth was noted in several forms such as successful completion of doctorate degrees, award of tenure, promotion to associate professor and full professor, gaining American Physical Therapy Association specialty certifications, acquiring grant funding, publishing book chapters in physiotherapy textbooks, publishing peer reviewed articles, and making peer-reviewed presentations.
Conclusion(s): Retention of qualified faculty especially by RPTE programs is critical. Thus, early orientation to institutional expectations in the areas of faculty teaching, scholarship, and service through education and faculty mentor-ship is essential for successful transition of faculty from novice to seasoned ranks.
Implications: The strategies described above are universal and can be modified for use by any physiotherapy education program across the globe.
Funding, acknowledgements: Historically Black Graduate Institution (HBGI) Grant funding supported funding for faculty professional development at one academic program.
Keywords: clinician, faculty, transition
Topic: Education: methods of teaching & learning
Did this work require ethics approval? No
Institution: N/A
Committee: N/A
Reason: innovative combination of strategies
All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.
