The Long School of Medicine recently co-hosted a two-and-a-half-day course on competency-based medical education for health care educators. The event, titled “Improving Faculty Competency in Assessment and Feedback in GME,” provided opportunities for guided discussion and hands-on demonstration of feedback and mentoring techniques.
Developed by the Long school’s Department of Medical Education in collaboration with medical education faculty at Dell Medical School in Austin and the San Antonio Uniformed Services Health Education Consortium, the workshop addressed a critical need to increase faculty development efforts and to develop academic physicians and educational leaders working in residency and fellowship programs.
The 40 physician-educators in attendance sharpened their teaching skills, with particular emphasis on improvement of assessment systems, the clinical evaluation and assessment of residents and fellows, and increasing effectiveness of clinical competency committees. The highlight of the course was a unique half-day session in the UT Health San Antonio Clinical Skills Center, where course participants took turns observing and providing feedback in real time to simulated residents treating simulated patients in a clinical environment representing progressively challenging scenarios.
Philip Luber, M.D., chairman of the Department of Medical Education, was the course director. “The energy in the room throughout the three days was incredible,” Dr. Luber said, “and the enthusiasm the workshop has generated to advance faculty skills in supervision, assessment and feedback will definitely advance medical education in South and Central Texas.”
The Chicago-based Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education is the body responsible for accrediting the majority of graduate medical training programs for physicians in the United States. It established a training hub in San Antonio through agreement among the Long School of Medicine, Dell Medical School and the San Antonio Uniformed Services Health Education Consortium.