Scholars in Health Equity: A Program of Structured Physician Faculty Development

Background

Structured faculty development programs focused on integrating health equity into medical education curricula remain limited.

Aim

To describe an interdisciplinary faculty development program grounded in adult learning theory and to assess its impact on participants’ professional growth.

Setting and Participants

Twenty-one faculty members across six academic-affiliated health systems.

Program Description

Fourteen 2-h monthly sessions were delivered over one full year. Course topics included health equity, adult learning theory, curriculum development, implicit bias, social determinants of health, racism, oppression, and collaborating with community partners. Educational strategies included reflections, small group discussions, logic models, and capstone development.

Program Evaluation

Using a Likert-type scale, participants rated all aspects of the program highly favorably, with median ratings ranging from 4 (agree) to 5 (strongly agree). Focus group results demonstrated that faculty experienced well-needed personal empowerment and professional growth in unexpected ways and identified several opportunities for programmatic growth.

Discussion

Program strengths included its interdisciplinary nature, creating a space to address isolation experienced by faculty working to advance health equity within their departments, advancement of skills to integrate health equity into their teaching contexts, and the opportunity for participants to envision their scholarship as part of a more extensive approach within the social determinants of health, health equity, and community health framework.