Faculty development for fellows: Developing and evaluating a broad-based career development course for critical care medicine trainees

Purpose: There is no defined training experience to teach the broad range of professional skills needed to transition from critical care trainee to practitioner. We hypothesized that a durable set of career development skills could be created for critical care medicine (CCM) trainees using a novel curriculum defined by both learners and content experts.

Materials and methods: We presented a curriculum focused on professional development skills to 8 second-year CCM fellows at a university-based training program. A needs assessment using input from faculty and fellows selected 22 topics for the course. Surveys given precurriculum and postcurriculum and at 3-year follow-up measured the perceived importance of these topics and learner comfort with the skills presented.

Results: Average class attendance was 77%. Seven subjects (87.5%) responded to each survey time point. Comfort scores increased from precourse to postcourse survey. Scores were maintained across most content areas from postcourse survey to follow-up. Respondents attributed a high level of importance to receiving training of this kind.

Conclusions: Teaching a broad range of career development skills can result in durable confidence when reinforced by regular use postgraduation. This course fills a critical care educational need, facilitating the transition to practitioner after CCM training.