Best medical schools for aspiring clinician-educators

[deleted983481]

Hi! First post in this forum, albeit as a long-time stalker, so please be nice. I'm a current full-time teacher with a career goal of becoming a clinician-educator. As such, I am looking to apply to allopathic medical schools that have strong MD curricular programs focused on training future clinician-educators (preferably with opportunities for scholarship in medical education). I can't seem to find too much information on this topic elsewhere in the forum, so I figured I would create this thread to collect information that would be useful for everyone with a similar career interest. Thanks!

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[mchammer]

Maybe not exactly what you're looking for, but check into the Netter School of Medicine at Quinnipiac University. All of their faculty are teaching faculty only, meaning they don't do research/etc. They really prioritize the education of their students, and it might be a good place to have the mentorship of a clinician-educator. Additionally, each student gets about $2500 to do a research project where you design just about anything that vaguely relates to medicine. I think one of the tracks for this project is "Medical Education." I imagine you could do a project related to medical school curriculum or teaching within the community or local schools. Overall, this school does not claim to focus on training clinician-educators (their goal is actually primary care), but the nature of the faculty makes me think it might be worth checking into for your goals. Even though it is a newer school, I have actually been very impressed with the school as a whole.

 

[Goro]

Hi! First post in this forum, albeit as a long-time stalker, so please be nice. I'm a current full-time teacher with a career goal of becoming a clinician-educator. As such, I am looking to apply to allopathic medical schools that have strong MD curricular programs focused on training future clinician-educators (preferably with opportunities for scholarship in medical education). I can't seem to find too much information on this topic elsewhere in the forum, so I figured I would create this thread to collect information that would be useful for everyone with a similar career interest. Thanks!

If my own DO school can have teaching fellowships, then there have to be tons of MD schools that also have them.

 

[LizzyM]

Most training and experience to be a physician-educator will come at PGY-II (your second year after medical school graduation) or later. Anywhere you can gain admission to medical school is going to get you where you want to go.

 

[DrFortiusNatando]

Although any medical school will prepare one to enter a clinician-educator track, sounds like OP is looking for a medical school where there will be strong mentors who are Clinician-Educators. How to excel within the C-E track at T20 schools is something that does need to be learned - there is a requirement at research heavy schools for the CE track faculty to be scholarly about their Clinician-Educator-ness and there are some ways to do this without spending too much time away from teaching and clinical duties. It is actually a tough needle to thread and to do well at a T20 research-heavy school and it is all about the mentorship of the faculty and how much they are valued at the school.

If OP is a strong applicant and eventually has their choice of medical schools, it may be beneficial for OP to look at which medical schools have strong Clinician-Educator tenure tracks for faculty. It may be a question they can ask at interviews and find online. At some schools, the C-E track is well-supported in terms of mentorship and promotion and there are many of the best faculty in the track, including Assoc and full Professors. At other medical schools, there is no C-E track or it is a dumping ground for life-long Assistant Professor faculty who can't get promoted on the other tracks. I have found that individual faculty members often have strong opinions about the C-E track at their school; interviews with faculty may be very revealing as to the value that the school places on those in the CE track. OP can also search medical school websites and ask at interviews as to the size and strength of the dedicated Med-Ed Department and faculty, Med-Ed programming such as electives, Med-Ed retreats/grand rounds as well as Med-Ed research opportunities.

 

[deleted983481]

Maybe not exactly what you're looking for, but check into the Netter School of Medicine at Quinnipiac University. All of their faculty are teaching faculty only, meaning they don't do research/etc. They really prioritize the education of their students, and it might be a good place to have the mentorship of a clinician-educator. Additionally, each student gets about $2500 to do a research project where you design just about anything that vaguely relates to medicine. I think one of the tracks for this project is "Medical Education." I imagine you could do a project related to medical school curriculum or teaching within the community or local schools. Overall, this school does not claim to focus on training clinician-educators (their goal is actually primary care), but the nature of the faculty makes me think it might be worth checking into for your goals. Even though it is a newer school, I have actually been very impressed with the school as a whole.

Thank you for the plug about Quinnipiac! I came across the school while perusing MSAR, but I didn't give it too much consideration then. I'll look more into their programs now.

 

[deleted983481]

I say this without sarcasm, any medical school that you can gain admission to.

With over 800,000 individual applications filed to over 150 programs, and at the maximum, only 150,000 potential interview slots, at best under 20% of applications get invited for interview, and less than 10% get either acceptance or waitlist.

Of total applicant pool
60% get rejected
20% get a single acceptance
20% get multiple acceptance

My point to this, not only is it against the odds to get into medical school, nearly half the people who matriculate get a single acceptance. Focusing about what school you have chance to gain admission first

Most training and experience to be a physician-educator will come at PGY-II (your second year after medical school graduation) or later. Anywhere you can gain admission to medical school is going to get you where you want to go.

As I create my school list for this coming cycle, I am evaluating an array of factors: GPA/MCAT range, IS/OOS preferences, location, mission, curriculum, residency match statistics, etc. I'm also considering available opportunities such as MedEd scholarly track/projects, teaching fellowships/organizations, and MedEd student groups. If any medical school really could help me attain my goal of being a clinician-educator, do you think it's worth paying considerable attention to these latter factors as I craft my school list? If context helps, I'm a nontrad Ivy applicant with >3.9/>520

 

[deleted983481]

Although any medical school will prepare one to enter a clinician-educator track, sounds like OP is looking for a medical school where there will be strong mentors who are Clinician-Educators. How to excel within the C-E track at T20 schools is something that does need to be learned - there is a requirement at research heavy schools for the CE track faculty to be scholarly about their Clinician-Educator-ness and there are some ways to do this without spending too much time away from teaching and clinical duties. It is actually a tough needle to thread and to do well at a T20 research-heavy school and it is all about the mentorship of the faculty and how much they are valued at the school.

If OP is a strong applicant and eventually has their choice of medical schools, it may be beneficial for OP to look at which medical schools have strong Clinician-Educator tenure tracks for faculty. It may be a question they can ask at interviews and find online. At some schools, the C-E track is well-supported in terms of mentorship and promotion and there are many of the best faculty in the track, including Assoc and full Professors. At other medical schools, there is no C-E track or it is a dumping ground for life-long Assistant Professor faculty who can't get promoted on the other tracks. I have found that individual faculty members often have strong opinions about the C-E track at their school; interviews with faculty may be very revealing as to the value that the school places on those in the CE track. OP can also search medical school websites and ask at interviews as to the size and strength of the dedicated Med-Ed Department and faculty, Med-Ed programming such as electives, Med-Ed retreats/grand rounds as well as Med-Ed research opportunities.

I really appreciate this perspective--so much so that I just copied and pasted your words into a doc in my "med school" google drive folder. Definitely going to keep this in mind as I proceed through the rest of the application process (especially along the interview trail, if I'm fortunate enough to get there). Thank you!!

 

[differentiating]

As LizzyM said, I'd expect residency to be a bigger factor in becoming a clinician educator than your medical school, honestly. I'm interested in pursuing that pathway myself, and most residencies I interviewed at had specific pathways and tracks one could pursue in order to set yourself up for jobs in the future.

I'd think pretty much all you could do in med school specifically related to MedEd would be a research project or two, since you're by definition in the position of learner rather than educator. Alternately, ECs like tutoring and TAing for classes below you might also be used to show a passion for teaching. All of these can probably be done at any school you want.

 

[Espadaleader]

The best medical school for a clinical educator is the best medical school you can get into. A top 20 school will give you more exposure to experts in academic medicine, the folks writing the journal articles etc.