Getting Started in Education
Educating and training health care professionals in the arts of healing is a core mission of an academic medical center. Faculty in Emergency Medicine at Emory have many goals and roles, but each faculty member is expected to have a passion for education and engage in this key mission of our department. The fundamental principles are the same for all faculty on any trajectory including:
- clinician-educator
- clinician-researcher
- clinician-administrator
Some faculty will identify in a primary education role and might pursue innovation and leadership in training in this domain. Other faculty might have other professional aspirations and priorities, but the commitment to excellence in education whether in the clinical setting, the classroom, the lab, or administration is universal. Educational excellence is a shared priority and responsibility of the Department and each individual faculty member.
The tenets of a star educator are:
- role-modeling
- evaluations
- participation
Faculty are expected to demonstrate excellence in medicine to learners by being exemplars of advanced science coupled with compassion and professionalism. In addition to being a role model, the faculty give feedback and provide evaluations to learners and our educational programs. This feedback provides the opportunity to guide learners to their own, best version of excellence. In addition, faculty are expected to contribute to the many non-clinical educational programs of the Department.
To assist us with the attainment of educational excellence, there are a multitude of resources to help promote excellence in faculty teaching:
- The Department provides a quarterly Faculty Development series with a special focus on education
- The School of Medicine (SOM) hosts monthly professional development workshops available to all faculty
- The Department will sponsor second- and third-year faculty to the Junior Faculty Development course, offered annually by the SOM
- Faculty who wish to gain further development may attend the Council of Residency Directors (CORD) Navigating the Academic Waters annual course
- Each year, as is possible, the Department sponsors several faculty for the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) Teaching Fellowship
- Faculty have discretionary continuing medical education funding for other, appropriate opportunities to advance their education portfolio.
The Department provides formalized annual feedback to faculty, including evidence of their educational efforts. The foundation of the feedback are learner evaluations and evidence of participation in the educational activities within the Department and SOM. The evaluations are incorporated into the SOM’s Career Conference Performance Reporting (CCPR) structure which is conducted through the Department’s Advocate structure. The CCPR is submitted to the Chair and the Dean of the School of Medicine.
Medical education provides the opportunity to make significant contributions to our communities and society. Together we advance in education from excellence to eminence.
Getting Started in Research
Scholarship, which is the development and dissemination of new knowledge or of new insights into existing knowledge, is one pillar of the tripartite mission of Emory University. Emergency Medicine Faculty are expected to engage in scholarship as part of their academic activities. However, the form of scholarship may vary widely. Scholarship may involve:
- developing new solutions to key health problems
- novel applications of existing methods
- innovation in learner education including resident, medical student and Advanced Practice Provider (APP) education
Effective scholarship creates impact through dissemination and incorporation into the practice of medicine (including training, education, and operations). Although multiple approaches to disseminating scholarly work exist, and are situationally appropriate, the primary mode of dissemination is through peer-reviewed publications.
EM faculty engage in scholarship in many different ways. Faculty with a focus on education, may study ways in which simulation can improve resident performance. Faculty with a focus on increasing diversity in medicine may study effective programs for recruiting and retaining Under Represented in Medicine (URiM) faculty, residents, and students. Faculty may also focus on leading research to study innovations in emergent and acute care.
The paths faculty take to get started in research at Emory vary widely:
- Some formulate hypotheses on how the practice of emergency medicine can be improved and develop experiments to test these hypotheses
- Others identify faculty who are already working in an area of interest and seek to collaborate
- Some identify companies whose products have the potential to improve care and work to develop clinical trials
No single one of these paths is better than another—what’s important is engagement in scholarship, not the approach by which a faculty member chooses to engage.
The Department of Emergency Medicine recognizes that getting started in scholarship can be intimidating for new faculty. We therefore provide multiple supports to assist faculty in getting started and developing careers to advance in their area of scholarship:
- Departmental research support is led by the Innovation and Discovery in the Emergent and Acute Sciences (IDEAS) section. The director of IDEAS is Dr. Jonathan Rupp. IDEAS supports a departmental research manager and statistician, Dr. Tim Moran, who is the primary point of contact for research support needs
- IDEAS also leverages support from EM’s Trial Operations Group to aid in clinical study design, trial management, and project staffing
- We also encourage faculty to engage with their advocates to discuss their respective areas of interest
Programs for faculty that IDEAS supports include:
- IDEAS Scholars 101 and 201 series, semi-monthly EM writing day, and individualized and team consultations. IDEAS scholars 101 is a 10-month course that aims to equip faculty who are getting started in research with the skills that they need to develop successful extramural grant applications and successful research careers. IDEAS Scholars 201 provides support (shift buydown, and or funds for pilot data collection) for faculty who commit to submitting a medium to large extramural grant application
- EM writing day is a semi-monthly session, usually held at a coffee shop, where EM faculty gather to support each other in their work on scholarly activities. IDEAS leadership are present and available to provide support throughout the writing day
- Training in the research process is also provided through the EM Department’s faculty development lecture series
Resources
The SOM Faculty Development Advisory Committee (FDAC) has designed a Faculty Onboarding guide to address a variety of questions that may arise as you begin your career at Emory. This guide focuses primarily on activities and resources at the School of Medicine level or University level.
- SOM Office of Faculty Academic Affairs & Profession Development: New Faculty have an entire section on the right side of the webpage with information including resource fairs, quick guides, and Life in Atlanta.
- SOM New Faculty Quick Quide (large collection of links)
- Emory Worklife Resource Center
- Faculty and Staff Assistance Program
- Emory University Human Resources
- Canvas Learning Management Systems: all Emory courses use Canvas with resources within the program to connect with students, record lectures, use video, receive and grade work, and utilize a whiteboard
- Zoom Web and Video Conferencing: web and video conferencing service for online meetings and webinars. Features include polling, breakout rooms, and instant messaging
- EmoryFirst: Web Profile: faculty can create and maintain their faculty website profiles using EmoryFIRST. Log-out of all Emory Healthcare programs prior to logging into EmoryFirst
- Emory Service-Now to request IT support