Faculty Development: Benefits to Your Organization

by Kathie Niesen, CMP

​​Do we really need to develop faculty? Doesn’t that just happen naturally? The answer is yes if you are very lucky and if you are that lucky don’t you wonder how much better your education plan could be?
 
Your faculty development plan doesn’t have to be or complicated, you can start small and grow it over time. Start with a plan to help your current faculty improve their presentations. Tips on creating power points, how to give a exciting lecture, there are plenty of websites out there that can help you create a program to do just that.
 
Create a video and post it on your website so your speakers can access it at their leisure or put together a program for your annual conferences and meetings. Offer a boot-camp for those who want to develop their teaching skills. Take advantage of your current experienced faculty. Ask them to help you put your faculty development program together and teach it. If you organization’s educational program is successful then you already have faculty members who are great educators.
 
Next identify those young members who may want to become involved in your education program. Ask for volunteers to blog on your website or serve as ambassadors at your meeting. Identify those who want to become involved those members are going to be your best assets.
 
Do you have a call for abstracts? If you work for a medical, scientific, teaching or engineering association then chances are you do have one. And if you do, then you already have a pool of professionals who want to be involved. Identify some of them to help you build your program.
 
Your already have the resources to create a faculty development program and doing so will help ensure the educational success of your organization.
 
Kathie Niesen, CMP is the Owner of KMN Meetings and Events. She specialized in the planning of medical meetings, instructional design, working with volunteers and faculty development. You can contact her at [email protected]
 
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