Purpose: To determine trends in faculty career development, stratified
by gender and under-represented minority (URM) status, for
obstetrician-gynecologists (ob-gyn) at all U.S. medical schools.
Background: The growing number of faculty and opportunities for
career pathways have expanded considerably at U.S. medical schools. This growth
differs between clinical specialties. Any dominance of non-tenure faculty has
important implications on academic promotion policies and teaching
expectations.
Methods: In this observational study, we used the Association
of American Medical Colleges Faculty Roster to describe trends in career
pathways (clinician educator, tenure-track, tenure) of full-time faculty at all
U.S. MD-granting medical schools between 1977 and 2017. Proportions of
female and URM faculty on each pathway were compared with that of male and
non-URM faculty.
Results: Between 1977 and 2017, the number of full-time faculty
increased from 1,628 to 6,347, mostly as clinician educators (from 345 to
4,607; 13.4-fold increase) than as being either tenured (from 457 to 587) or on
tenure-track (366 to 514). The proportion of clinician educators increased from
21.2% to 69.4%. The availability of tenure positions remained constant (92.7%
of all schools); however, the proportions of tenured and tenure-track faculty
declined steadily from 28.1% and 22.5%, respectively to 8.2-9.1% for each
group. The proportions of male and female faculty who were tenured or on
tenure track declined from 52.9% and 37.1% respectively to 23.3% and 13.6%. The
proportion who were tenured or on tenure-track declined similarly for URM (from
55.3% to 13.4%) and non-URM (from 50.2% to 18.0%) faculty.
Discussions: The substantial rise in ob-gyn faculty is largely among those
who pursued careers as clinician educators. This finding confirms the essential
need and protected time for educator development programs at all schools to
more effectively teach medical students and resident physicians.
Topics: CREOG & APGO Annual Meeting, 2019, Student, Resident, Faculty, Professionalism, CME, Lecture,
Danielle Esters,
MD, University
of New Mexico; Imam Xerali, PhD;
Mahdi Awwad,
MD; Marc
Nivet, EdD,
MBA; William Rayburn, MD, MBA
