PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Jessica R. Berman AU - Juliet Aizer AU - Anne R. Bass AU - William L. Cats-Baril AU - Edward J. Parrish AU - Laura Robbins AU - Jane E. Salmon AU - Stephen A. Paget TI - Building a Rheumatology Education Academy: Insights from Assessment of Needs During a Rheumatology Division Retreat AID - 10.3899/jrheum.111281 DP - 2012 Apr 15 TA - The Journal of Rheumatology PG - jrheum.111281 4099 - http://www.jrheum.org/content/early/2012/04/11/jrheum.111281.short 4100 - http://www.jrheum.org/content/early/2012/04/11/jrheum.111281.full AB - Objective To implement a rheumatology department education retreat to systematically identify and address the key factors necessary to improve medical education in our division in preparation for developing a rheumatology academy. Methods The Hospital for Special Surgery organized a retreat for the Rheumatology Department aimed at (1) providing formal didactics and (2) assessing participants’ self-reported skills and interest in education with the goal of directing this information toward formalizing improvement. In a mixed-methods study design, faculty and fellows in the Division of Rheumatology were surveyed online pre- and post-retreat regarding various aspects of the current education program, their teaching abilities, interest and time spent in teaching, divisional resources allocated, and how education is valued. Results Enthusiasm for teaching was high before and rose further after the retreat. Confidence in abilities was higher than expected before but fell afterward. Many noted that the lack of specific feedback on teaching skills and useful metrics to assess performance prevented the achievement of educational excellence. Most responding felt lack of time, knowledge of how to teach well, and resources prevented them from making greater commitments to educational endeavors and participating fully and effectively in the department’s teaching activities. Conclusion While most rheumatology faculty members want to improve as teachers, they know neither where their educational strengths and weaknesses lie nor where or how to begin to change their teaching abilities. The key elements for an academy would thus be an educational environment that elevates the quality of teaching throughout the division and promotes teaching careers and education research, and raises the importance and quality of teaching to equivalence with clinical care and research.