Implementation of a Scholarly Activity Program in a Small Academic Medical Center Department
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Implementation of a Scholarly Activity Program in a Small Academic Medical Center Department Chad M. Rasmussen 1
&
Alan B. Carr 1
Accepted: 21 September 2020 # International Association of Medical Science Educators 2020
Abstract Small departments within academic medical centers have fewer numbers of clinicians, less time devoted to research, and fewer staff with senior faculty academic ranks available as mentors. This report describes the rationale behind Mayo Clinic’s Department of Dental Specialties’ scholarly activity program, implemented to combine mentorship with scholarship provided in a variety of formats. Program objectives focused on providing mentorship, disseminating existing scholarship, and bringing a diversity of scholarly activities into departmental mainstream. Keywords Academic medical center . Scholarship program . Faculty mentorship
Background Small departments within academic medical centers (AMC) have the same institutional directives as their larger department colleagues: to excel at patient care, provide quality resident and fellow education, and contribute to the knowledge of their specialty. For departments staffed by clinically focused appointments grappling to gain a scholarship foothold, the obstacles often seem larger than the opportunities [1]. Smesny [2] identifies lack of promotion guidelines, lack of knowledge on alternative forms of scholarship, lack of time, and lack of mentors as obstacles common to faculty in dentistry, medicine, nursing, and pharmacy. A small department may contribute to these challenges through a reduced number of staff members, inability to provide research time away from clinical responsibilities, and fewer members with senior faculty academic ranks available to mentor junior faculty and trainees. Choi [3] reasons that a dynamic culture of mentorship is essential to AMC scholarship. Similarly, Gottleib [4] advocates efforts to tap internal mentor talent in an increasingly resource-poor healthcare environment.
* Chad M. Rasmussen [email protected] 1
Department of Dental Specialties, Mayo Clinic, 200 First St SW, Rochester, MN 55905, USA
This report describes how our small department compares with our unique AMC partners with respect to the size of clinical staff, availability of research appointments, and numbers of senior faculty. We then highlight our approach to developing initial scholarly activity program activities that draw on the diversity of scholarship in its several forms, and finally report faculty feedback 15 months after implementation. Dentistry holds a unique place in AMC amongst our colleagues in medicine. Mayo Clinic’s Department of Dental Specialties has consultants appointed specifically to serve oral health needs of a medical practice’s patients and includes Dental Sleep Medicine, Maxillofacial Prosthetics and Dental Oncology, Orofacial Pain, Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics, Periodontics, and Prosthodontics. Comparison of our department to the AMC consisted of evaluating the numbers of consultant (i.e., c
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