Developing your faculties.

I cannot remember when I first came across the phrase ‘faculty development’ to describe training doctors how to teach, but I remember I found it puzzling. I had been involved in training general practitioners (GPs) for many years, but we simply talked about ‘training the trainers’ and that seemed a good enough description. I was not sure why doctors who taught medical students or trainees needed to consider themselves as faculty members in the same way as academics who taught astrophysics or ancient Greek. I would have been sceptical if anyone had told me that that my business card and email signature would one day bear the words ‘Associate Dean, Faculty Development’ as they now do, or that I would be talking on the subject at international conferences. This is ironic, but I hope the memory of my initial reaction makes me more tolerant when I come across people nowadays who are still as puzzled as I used to be. There are in fact two very good reasons for thinking about faculty development in medicine: one is the idea of ‘faculty’ and the other is that of ‘development’. Although virtually all doctors teach other people in the course of their work—often including nurses and support staff as well as junior doctors and medical colleagues— many do not think of themselves as being educators as well as clinicians. This is a pity. It means that doctors may assume they can teach well when they have never taken the trouble to find out if anyone else agrees. Conversely, some doctors only teach reluctantly because it comes with the job and they never consider the possibility they might learn to do it better and enjoy it more. Encouraging doctors to think of themselves as members of a teaching faculty as well as a clinical team gives them a clear identity as educators. It is a way of reminding them they have not only one worthwhile profession but two, and a responsibility to perform both of these equally well. Similarly, using the word ‘development’ rather than ‘training’ helps to emphasise that becoming a good teacher is a continuous and long term process. Doctors need to develop as educators throughout their careers in the same way they are expected to undertake continual professional development as clinicians.