Blue Ribbon Committee II Faculty Development: Report of the Subcommittee on Faculty Development and Educational Support.

Abstract

The American College of Surgeons, the American Board of Surgery, and the American Surgical Association have created a Blue Ribbon Committee II to evaluate the current status of surgical education in the United States. As part of this endeavor, a subcommittee was formed to address issues pertinent to the development of surgical faculty as teachers. This entailed multiple discussions among a group of experienced surgical educators, a review of the literature, and a Delphi analysis of possible suggested improvements for faculty educational support, resulting in a final set of recommendations for improvement for future surgical faculty development. These recommendations include a task force to establish a validated system of compensation for faculty teaching, a task force to determine an accurate assessment of the value of surgical trainees to health systems, a review by the Surgical Residency Review Committee and the Association of Program Directors in Surgery of minimal faculty resources for program accreditation in the area of teaching learners, collaborative efforts across surgical specialties for the definition of a national curriculum for faculty, and development of a tool for evaluation of faculty teaching performance.