Interprofessional reconstruction of a policy for academic advancement: The evolution and evaluation of scholarship for today, tomorrow, and beyond.

Within higher education, scholarship is narrowly and inconsistently defined, limiting recognition of evolving faculty expectations, particularly for nursing faculty. At this academic medical center, a campus-wide, multi-school, academic advancement policy was achieved with a broader definition of scholarship that included: peer-reviewed publication of federally funded research, as well as innovation in curriculum development, teaching methodology, community engagement, safety and quality improvement, clinical practice, and health policy that would be applicable to tenure and non-tenure track faculty. The background, process, and outcomes of developing an expanded definition of scholarship that encompasses new and evolving areas of scholarship for a reconstructed academic personnel policy is presented.

Defining Scholarship for Today and Tomorrow.

Scholarship, required for academic advancement, has traditionally been defined narrowly, not keeping pace with the expansion of faculty academic activities in health professions schools. How can we refine the definition of scholarship so that it better aligns with the scope of current faculty practice within academic health systems? Revision of the academic policies for promotion and tenure at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School afforded an opportunity to redefine scholarship such that a broader platform was available for faculty recognition, aligning with current academic standards, yet providing flexibility for the future. The authors describe the historical context of the definition of scholarship and their institution's process to construct a definition of scholarship with three essential elements: advancement of knowledge, dissemination for critical review, and impact on a discipline, practice, or community.

Endowed Chairs and Professorships: A New Frontier in Gender Equity.

Purpose: Endowed chairs and professorships are prestigious and financially important awards that symbolize individual faculty recognition. However, data about the gender distribution of these positions are lacking. The purpose of this study was to examine the gender distribution of endowed positions at U.

A Systematic Review of Development Programs Designed to Address Leadership in Academic Health Center Faculty.

Introduction: To describe Academic Health Center (AHC) faculty leadership development program characteristics and categorize leadership topics into thematic areas suggesting competency domains to guide programmatic curricular development.

Methods: A systematic literature review was conducted (PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus, Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature [CINAHL], and Journal Storage [JSTOR databases]). Eligible studies described programs with leadership development intent for faculty in AHCs.

Advancing Professional Development Through a Community of Practice: the New England Network for Faculty Affairs.

Introduction: In an era of competing priorities, funding is increasingly restricted for offices of faculty affairs and development. Opportunities for professional staff to grow and network through attendance at national meetings and to share best practices are limited. We sought to describe a community of practice established to enhance the professional development of faculty affairs professionals and to document its impact.

Meeting the Late-Career Needs of Faculty Transitioning Through Retirement: One Institution's Approach.

Problem: Medical school faculty are aging, but few academic health centers are adequately prepared with policies, programs, and resources (PPR) to assist late-career faculty. The authors sought to examine cultural barriers to successful retirement and create alignment between individual and institutional needs and tasks through PPR that embrace the contributions of senior faculty while enabling retirement transitions at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, 2013-2017.

Approach: Faculty 50 or older were surveyed, programs at other institutions and from the literature (multiple fields) were reviewed, and senior faculty and leaders, including retired faculty, were engaged to develop and implement PPR.

Grant writing 101.

Writing a grant is a hefty undertaking. Start by surrounding yourself with a successful mentor and accompanying team with a good track record. Get organized, select clear goals and objectives to your project.

Perspective: Toward a competency framework for faculty.

Today, faculty in academic medicine face challenges in all three mission areas--research, education, and patient care--and require a broad set of competencies to survive in this changing environment. To support faculty and to design assessments that match new expectations, the authors argue that it is essential to capture the full scope of skills, knowledge, and behaviors necessary for a successful faculty member. Thus, it is timely to explore and define competencies for faculty in academic medicine.

Functional mentoring: a practical approach with multilevel outcomes.

Introduction: Mentoring is a central component of professional development. Evaluation of "successful" mentoring programs, however, has been limited and mainly focused on measures of satisfaction with the relationship. In today's environment, mentoring programs must produce tangible outcomes to demonstrate success.

Empowering junior faculty: Penn State's faculty development and mentoring program.

Empowerment of faculty is essential for academic success. The Junior Faculty Development Program (JFDP), sponsored by the Office of Professional Development of the Penn State College of Medicine, was established in 2003 with the goal of promoting the development and advancement of junior faculty so they can achieve success in their academic careers. The program consists of two components: a curriculum in research, education, clinical practice, and career development, and an individual project completed under the guidance of a senior faculty mentor.

Seven cDNAs enriched following hippocampal lesion: possible roles in neuronal responses to injury.

Synaptic plasticity is important for formation of long-term memories and in re-establishment of function following injury. Seven cDNAs enriched following lesion in the hippocampus of the rat have been isolated using a PCR-based cDNA suppression subtraction hybridization. Sequence analysis resulted in the identification of two genes with known roles in synaptic development and neuronal activities: astrotactin and calcineurin.

Differential expression of protein tyrosine kinase genes during microglial activation.

Protein tyrosine kinase (PTK) activity is abundant in microglia, but the PTKs that participate in their activation have not been identified. For these studies, we used three paradigms to characterize PTK expression during microglial activation: resting and activated microglia were bulk fractionated from the adult brain, cultured newborn microglia were treated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) to model the transition from activated toward phagocytic microglia, and PTK expression was examined in activated microglia in situ after facial nerve axotomy. Two PCR-based strategies were used to show that 21 different PTK genes are expressed by rat brain microglia: 5 receptor PTKs, 10 nonreceptor PTKs, and 6 members of the src family.