Theme: 5AA Evaluation of the teacher
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Why Surgeons Volunteer in Medical EducationRetention and Reinforcement of Faculty Motivation
Authors: Nathalie Rutz
Urs Rueetschi
Kodi Kojima
Institutions: AO Foundation - AO Education Institute - Dübendorf - Switzerland
University of Sao Paulo - Orthopedic Trauma Unit - Sao Paulo - Brazil
 
Background

This study aims at examining the underlying motives, the preference of incentives and the level of satisfaction and commitment of surgeons volunteering as faculty members for the AO Foundation, a network of more than 12,000 surgeons based in Switzerland. It is the ultimate goal of this study to find new ways for the AO to enhance the motivation of its faculty members and secure the succession of the key-players amongst them.

Summary of Work

In order to get a general grasp of the motivational state amongst faculty members, sixteen qualitative pre-study interviews were conducted in 2013. Based on the content analysis of those interviews and the following literature research a quantitative online survey was designed. The survey was administered to all of the 4,661 registered faculty members of AO's largest Clinical Division "AOTrauma". The results where then thoroughly analyzed using the statistics tool SPSS.

References
  1. Esmond J, Dunlop P. Developing the Volunteer Motivation Inventory to Assess the Underlying Motivational Drives of Volunteers in Western Australia. Perth: CLAN WA; 2004.
  2. Clary G, Snyder M. Understanding and Assessing the Motivations of Volunteers: A Functional Approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 1998;74(6):1516–1530.

AO Foundation: www.aofoundation.org 

AOTrauma: www.aotrauma.com

Contact: nathalie.rutz@aofoundation.org

Acknowledgement

The AO Foundation is a medically guided nonprofit organization that aims at improving patient care through its educational activities in the field of musculoskeletal trauma. The largest clinical division AOTrauma in 2013 ran 386 courses with 5,693 involved faculty members.

Summary of Results

With a total of 740 valid responses the online survey yielded a response rate of 16%. The participants statistics show good representativity in regard to the total population (Fig 1).  The results of the analysis show that most volunteering faculty members are motivated by superior motives such as improving patient care (Values), giving back some of the education they received (Reciprocity) and learning new skills themselves to improve their practice (Understanding) (Fig 2).  Generally the faculty members reported high satisfaction levels (Fig 3).  The majority of the faculty members were especially satisfied with the social aspects of being an AOTrauma faculty member as well as with the learning opportunities it provided them. Some faculty members indicated that the financial compensation, the number of teaching-, training-, and leadership opportunities as well as the amount of performance feedback should be increased (Fig 4).   The incentives scores show that while performance feedback, training-, and leadership opportunities seem to be important perks, financial compensation is the least preferred incentive (Fig 5).  Roughly three quarters of the faculty members that participated in the survey responded that their motivation has increased since they joined the AOTrauma and the same amount of surgeons indicated that they would like to increase their current commitment (Fig 6).

 

Fig 1. Demographics of participants

 

 

Fig 2. Most important motives

 

Fig 3. Satisfaction in general

 

Fig 4. Least satisfactory aspects

 

Fig 5. Most preferred incentives

 

Fig 6. Motivation change and future commitment

Conclusion

The results of the AOTrauma faculty survey are generally encouraging. The level of satisfaction, motivation, and commitment from most faculty members is outstanding. However, the survey results also indicate how AOTrauma's faculty offerings and contacts with faculty members could be improved. The following measures were discussed as possible implications of the findings:

  • Strategically plan faculty trainings in the regions. Training just for the sake of training leads to frustration when faculty members do not receive teaching assignments.
  • Communicate a clear and transparent faculty career pathway.
  • Systematically gather information on the attendance and performance of faculty members in a database to provide regular and objective feedback.
  • Where possible, align decisions regarding teaching assignments and the promotion of faculty members with performance feedback and improvement efforts.
Background
Summary of Work
References
Acknowledgement
Summary of Results
Conclusion
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