SHM Converge Scientific Abstract ePoster Gallery-Breaking Barriers, Building Faculty: A Qualitative Analysis Exploring Faculty Development

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This qualitative study explored faculty development (FD) in academic hospital medicine and how it can better support hospitalists’ careers and scholarly growth. Because hospital medicine is largely staffed by early-career physicians and lacks enough experienced mentors and academic output, the authors examined current FD practices, barriers, and future needs.

The researchers conducted seven virtual focus groups with 19 hospitalists from 17 U.S. institutions in May 2022. Using rapid qualitative analysis, they identified four major themes:

1. <strong>Academic hospitalist programs face many challenges to FD</strong>  
   Participants described limited formal structure, inconsistent mentoring, and competing clinical and organizational demands. Some noted that engagement in FD dropped during COVID-19.

2. <strong>Effective structures and frameworks matter</strong>  
   Hospitalists emphasized the need for formal mentorship, especially for publishing, grant writing, and career advancement. They felt faculty should not be expected to develop these skills independently.

3. <strong>FD must adapt to clinical workload and changing advancement needs</strong>  
   Programs are adjusting to heavy clinical volumes and changing expectations for faculty development. Some institutions use incentives and regular meetings to support participation.

4. <strong>Future focus should include collaboration and resource sharing</strong>  
   Participants wanted a shared repository of materials and more partnerships across institutions, especially given the increased comfort with virtual formats developed during the pandemic.

Key findings showed that while interest in FD is growing, only 42% of participants reported having a formal FD program. The study suggests that hospital medicine needs stronger infrastructure, clearer outcome measures, compensation, and cross-institution collaboration to make FD sustainable and effective.

Asset Subtitle

Jack Badawy

Meta Tag

Author List Ankur Segon, Christine Davis, David Schmit, Elizabeth Murphy, Jack Badawy, Marisha Burden, Matthew Sakumoto

Category Research

Concept Academic Hospitalist Program

Concept Faculty Development

Concept Mentorship

Concept clinical workload

Concept Professional Advancement

Distinguished Non-Finalist

Presenter Organization The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio

Presenting Author Jack Badawy

Track Education

Keywords

faculty development

academic hospital medicine

hospitalists

qualitative study

mentorship

scholarly growth

career advancement

grant writing

virtual focus groups

cross-institution collaboration

Academic Hospitalist Program

Faculty Development

Mentorship

clinical workload

Professional Advancement