Collaborative Faculty Development Transforms Evaluation at a School of Osteopathic Medicine

The purpose of this pilot study is (1) to describe the innovative design and implementation of the incipient FD program at University of the Incarnate Word School of Osteopathic Medicine (UIWSOM), San Antonio, Texas; and (2) to present insights from a preliminary process evaluation of the program’s initial launch to inform and facilitate broad scale implementation. We performed a process evaluation of the initial iteration of the FD program using an inductive qualitative research approach. We applied principles of constructivist grounded theory to analyze faculty’s responses collected during semi-structured interviews. Three themes emerged from our analysis: communication, advocacy, and reciprocal learning. We found that effective communication, advocacy for faculty success, and reciprocal value between faculty and program developers undergirded the core concept of authentic engagement. Faculty’s perceptions of the quality of engagement of those implementing the program overshadowed the quality of the logistics.