Reach to Teach: Supporting Clinician Educators in Rheumatology

ORLANDO, FLORIDA—A great teacher can change the lives of countless students, and nowhere are great teachers needed more than in the training of physicians, who, in turn, use this education to care for patients. With this in mind the ACR Education Exchange 2023 session How Division Directors Can Support Clinician Educators provided insightful guidance for directors and educators alike to ensure career success and satisfaction.

A Career Track

The first speaker in the session was Lisa Zickuhr, MD, MHPE, assistant professor of rheumatology, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Mo. She began by defining the term clinician educator. Dr. Zickuhr noted that there is a contrast between teachers and educators. Teachers are individuals who impart knowledge, including in the clinical learning environment. An educator, on the other hand, not only teaches but also has a fundamental understanding of the frameworks and best practices used for assessment, feedback, mentoring and instruction. In essence, educators understand these mechanisms and apply these frameworks to the activities in which they participate, thus making the education work that they do a form of scholarship.

Dr. Zickuhr explained that clinician educators need time to learn these frameworks and practice applying these concepts to the education of trainees. In doing so, clinician educators should seek to develop their own niche within the clinical and educational realm, and be given opportunities to discover such passions.

Division chairs can help clinician educators begin their careers and achieve growth. By supporting clinician educators conceptually and in practical terms (e.g., by providing protected time for coursework/workshops in learning theory, and by helping find other educators who can serve as mentors), division chairs can help make their clinician educators successful.

Part of promoting this success, Dr. Zickuhr explains, is seeking qualified candidates for positions. A graduating fellow hoping to become a clinician educator should have ideas about what they hope to achieve in a career and how to pursue their goals. Many fellowship programs now have clinician educator training tracks in which trainees can earn certification in pedagogy. It is also possible to pursue a master’s degree in a medical education fellowship and, while doing so, participants should seek invitations to pursue opportunities in medical education at their own institution and elsewhere.

Dr. Zickuhr described challenges that division directors may face with regard to recruiting and retaining clinician educators. These obstacles include providing enough protected time for educational activities, ensuring recruitment of under-represented minorities in faculty positions, helping faculty balance clinical responsibilities with teaching opportunities/demands and avoiding the point of saturation within a division (i.e., having too many dedicated clinician educators in a given division).

Dr. Zickuhr recommends that, whenever possible, division directors assist with finding effective mentors for young faculty and sponsorship (e.g., by nominating faculty to serve on various committees and to lead certain educational activities), and providing funding for educational initiatives.

Focus Area

The second speaker in the session was Jay Mehta, MD, MS, associate program director of the Pediatric Residency Program, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. He pointed out two types of clinician educators: Big C and Big E.