Sustaining enthusiasm in the classroom: reinvestment strategies that work.

Objective: To identify reinvestment strategies of 11 senior health-education faculty from 3 degree programs.

Methods: Data from individual, in-depth interviews were inductively analyzed for content.

Results: The identified strategies grouped around 6 themes: growth and success in work, realization of an optimal fit into profession, investment into interpersonal relationships, focus on stimulating and uplifting experiences, pursuit of professional/personal balance, and problems and coping.

Conclusions: Reinvestment is a very complex process that may be mediated by frequent experience of positive emotions. Further research needs to employ a positive perspective and investigate variables from different levels of analysis.