Succeeding as a Clinician Educator: Useful tips and resources. Castiglioni A, Aagaard E, Spencer A, Nicholson L, Karani R, Bates CK, Willett LL, Chheda SG. J Gen Intern Med. 2012; 28(1):136-140. Available online from the Baystate Health Sciences Library, or from PubMed at your institution.
Oh, August: A new crop of residents. Tired, sunburned faculty and staff. All reminders that another annual cycle is beginning, which in itself is a reminder that your annual cycle doesn't ever seem to end. August brings an academic's New Year's celebration, and so it is with that silver-lining perspective that I present to you this article, with its built-in list of resolutions that I will condense and paraphrase:
Resolution 1: Take control of your academic destiny.
Castiglioni and colleagues present this article as a plan of attack for junior faculty. Their protagonist, Dr. Enthusiast, seems like a great guy. He seems to be doing everything that he can. But these authors have the gall to suggest that he could - and should! - do more.
The authors present six action areas for Dr. Enthusiast: 1) set goals, 2) seek mentors, 3) find your niche, 4) network, 5) move your work to scholarship, and 6) seek funding. Why should you want to take action in these areas? The authors present literature on how critical such actions are for advancement. To this I add that there is no more frustrating feeling than sitting in a conference listening to someone present a project you implemented LAST YEAR. And yours was much better, I might add.
We do great things at this institution and because of that, we attract great learners and great teachers. But we can be even better. We can put the enthusiasm of our teaching into our careers and the careers of our junior faculty. We can seek mentors and serve as mentors, and we can become the type of mentees that we want of our learners. We can network and we can help others to network. And we can all move our work to scholarship.
So this year, I grant you permission to move "floss daily" further down the list; make it a priority to advance your academic career instead. Then, flash those pearly whites during your own conference presentation.
Resolution 1: Take control of your academic destiny.
Castiglioni and colleagues present this article as a plan of attack for junior faculty. Their protagonist, Dr. Enthusiast, seems like a great guy. He seems to be doing everything that he can. But these authors have the gall to suggest that he could - and should! - do more.
The authors present six action areas for Dr. Enthusiast: 1) set goals, 2) seek mentors, 3) find your niche, 4) network, 5) move your work to scholarship, and 6) seek funding. Why should you want to take action in these areas? The authors present literature on how critical such actions are for advancement. To this I add that there is no more frustrating feeling than sitting in a conference listening to someone present a project you implemented LAST YEAR. And yours was much better, I might add.
We do great things at this institution and because of that, we attract great learners and great teachers. But we can be even better. We can put the enthusiasm of our teaching into our careers and the careers of our junior faculty. We can seek mentors and serve as mentors, and we can become the type of mentees that we want of our learners. We can network and we can help others to network. And we can all move our work to scholarship.
So this year, I grant you permission to move "floss daily" further down the list; make it a priority to advance your academic career instead. Then, flash those pearly whites during your own conference presentation.
