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A survey of retaining faculty at a new medical school: opportunities, challenges and solutions

Year: 2018

Type: article

Abstract: BACKGROUND: At well-established academic university settings, retaining faculty remains a pressing challenge due to competing market forces, decreasing institutional support, and changing personal expectations. There is a paucity of information about the difficulties faced by new medical schools to maintain their academic workforce. The objective of this study was to determine the challenges facing the faculty at a newly developed medical school. METHODS: Twelve founding faculty were surveyed anonymously by a 32-item questionnaire. Their responses were independently analyzed by three researchers. RESULTS: The views of the faculty were categorized into in four inter-related themes: personal, support, institutional, and environmental. The constant sources of satisfaction among faculty were higher academic rank (75%), harmonious inter-collegial relationships (74%), healthy pecuniary rewards (58%), better professional growth (58%) along with greater autonomy, administrative independence, minimum groupism and excellent team work. Poor opportunities for promotion (68%), reduced support for scholarly activities (67%) and unsatisfactory support from the administration (55%) were detrimental to retaining faculty. CONCLUSION: By addressing specific issues facing its staff, every new medical school will not only manage to retain its academic faculty but also be able to attract well qualified academic staff from established medical institutions worldwide.

Source: BMC Medical Education

DOI: 10.1186/s12909-018-1330-z

Authors: Fauzia Nausheen, Mukesh M Agarwal, John J Estrada, Dhammika N Atapattu

Institution: California University of Science and Medicine

Language: English

Topic: Diversity and Career in Medicine

Subfield: Gender Studies

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Quality education

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $2,990