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Professional Identity Formation of Medical Science Educators: An Imperative for Academic Medicine

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Abstract

Medical schools increasingly seek the expertise of talented medical science faculty to engage in the educational mission of the school; yet, the professional identity of these individuals is in flux. As courses and departments have become more integrated and less discipline-based, faculty with doctorates in biomedical science disciplines who primarily teach may suffer a loss of connection to their discipline, either in the courses they are teaching or in their home departments. Recent reports suggest that most medical science educators transitioned from the laboratory to the classroom by happenstance—not the most ideal way to build this key segment of the faculty. This article addresses the importance of foundational sciences in medical training, highlights the unique contributions of science educators in medical schools, and makes a case for why the professional identity of medical science educators should be studied. An imperative for academic medicine is to understand the factors that underpin the professional identity formation of medical science educators and to invest in training and nurturing this group of faculty members that are vital to educating the next generation of health professionals.

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Notes

  1. To use consistent terminology in this manuscript we refer to basic science faculty (PhD scientists) who teach foundational sciences in medical school as “medical science educators,” rather than basic science or foundational science educators, or to clinician educators who also teach foundational sciences.

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Acknowledgements

This commentary was developed in conjunction with a project on the professional identity formation of basic science medical educators that is supported, in part, by the International Association of Medical Science Educators (IAMSE) [37]. The authors thank Dr. Ming-Jung Ho for leading the project and for her helpful comments on drafts of this manuscript.

Funding

A.H. is supported in part by funding from the Kern National Network for Flourishing (KNN) through an investment from the Kern Family Foundation. N.O. is supported in part by National Institutes of Health grants R01 GM126363 and R01 AI170546.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biochemistry, Molecular & Cellular Biology, Georgetown University School of Medicine, Washington, DC, 20057, USA

    Aviad Haramati

  2. Center for Innovation and Leadership in Education (CENTILE), Georgetown University School of Medicine, Washington, DC, 20057, USA

    Aviad Haramati

  3. Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, The University of Kansas School of Medicine, Kansas City, KS, USA

    Giulia Bonaminio

  4. Departments of Biochemistry and Medicine, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN, USA

    Neil Osheroff

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Haramati, A., Bonaminio, G. & Osheroff, N. Professional Identity Formation of Medical Science Educators: An Imperative for Academic Medicine. Med.Sci.Educ. 34, 209–214 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40670-023-01922-9

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