TOTB-10: COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE: AN APPROACH TO FACULTY DEVELOPMENT AND MORE?
Dmitry Nepomnayshy, MD, MSc, Darlene Bourgeois, MSN, RN; Lahey Hospital and Medical Center

What problem in education is addressed by this work?:
Traditional classroom-based faculty development approaches have encountered problems with poor attendance, inadequate learning and teacher apathy. There is evidence that faculty development is much more effective if provided longitudinally with opportunities for practice, feedback and reflection in the specific institutional contexts where the teacher practices.

Describe the intervention:
We designed a faculty development program that utilizes the communities of practice model. A community of practice is a group of people who have common goals, established systems of communication, derivation of meaning, and ways of doing things. We invited clinician teachers in the institution to participate in monthly lunchtime sessions where participants generate learning objectives and educational content.

Describe how this intervention could be applied at other institutions. Please specifically comment on identified barriers that could exist and how they could be overcome:
It can be easily applied at other institutions. The resources required include a champion, access to experts in faculty development, and faculty. Benefits include an activity which provides longitudinal opportunities for learning, reflection, feedback and support, and thus is likely to be more effective than traditional faculty development activities. In addition, these communities can provide opportunities for faculty recognition and promotion within the institution. Barriers include accepting the paradigm shift associated with identifying clinician teachers and educators as a distinct community of practice, similar to other medical specialties.