Education Consult Service

Do you have a challenging scenario in your daily educational practice?

Are there educational events in your course, clerkship, residency, or fellowship that could be improved?
Is there an accreditation visit for your program upcoming and you would like advice or help on how to prepare?

If you answered yes to any of these questions or face challenges or have difficult questions or scenarios in your daily educational practice, the Office of Faculty Development is excited to introduce the Health Professions Education Consult Service as a collegial, supportive service that helps faculty members from across the HSC solve complex educational issues.

How do I request a consult? Who can request a consult?

• Any faculty member can request a consult to help with an educational issue they may be facing
• Sometimes educational issues or concerns can be identified by faculty colleagues serving in a supervisory role or by a committee in any of the HSC schools and those individuals or entities can request a consult as well. Individuals able to request/initiate the consult process, include but are not limited to:
  • Faculty member themselves
  • Curriculum Committee in relevant school
  • Course/Clerkship/Program Director
  • Department Chair
  • Division Chief
  • Assistant/Associate Deans
  • Graduate Medical Education Committee
  • Dean of School

Consults and their recommendations are intended as a collegial, peer to peer process and are truly done to help faculty overcome challenging situations or improve their educational offerings and programs.

As such, the findings of the consultation would be made available to the involved faculty member as well as appropriate supervising faculty (Dean/Assistant Dean or Department Chair/Division Chief). The findings WOULD NOT be presented to any group at large, such as the Curriculum Committee, Graduate Medical Education Committee, become a part of a Promotion and Tenure evaluation, be used in the Annual Evaluation, Appointment/Reappointment process, or be discoverable by other relevant committee or evaluation process in the individual school.

This process is entirely aimed at preventing educational problems from becoming larger issues that would result in adverse actions and provide support for teaching and educational endeavors. Given the collegial nature, it is our hope that this program will be viewed as an additional supportive benefit of working at the WVU HSC.

What happens after I request a consult?

Consults received in the Office of Faculty Development will be reviewed by the Consult Service Directors.  Following review, the directors will arrange a meeting with the referring faculty to gain insight into the nature of the consultation question and perform a needs assessment. Following this initial conversation, the directors will assemble the consultation team which may include but are not limited to:

• Consult service directors
• Medical Education and Administration fellows
• Ad hoc faculty members from the home HSC school of the consult request

The consultation team will reach out to the relevant faculty members identified in the needs assessment to arrange an initial meeting as well as make plans for potential observational/inquiry methods, including:

• Discussions/coaching sessions with the faculty member
• Discussions to gain insight into the nature of the problem with learners
• Direct observation of large group teaching
• Direct observation of clinical bedside teaching
• Direct observation of simulation sessions
• Coaching sessions to assist with preparations of high stakes, large scale documents, such as ACGME program applications, programmatic or school level accreditation documents, student narratives/grade change requests, and other documents as deemed appropriate by the Medical Education Consult Team and educational leadership in the appropriate school.

Results of the Consult

The findings will be reported on the Health Professions Education Consult report form, and should there be ongoing longitudinal needs for mentorship/coaching beyond the consultation, arrangements will be made for ongoing meetings/mentorship/advising by the faculty deemed most appropriate by the consult service and the faculty member.

Do you need or want an educational consult?

Request a Consult

Interested in Joining the Consult Team?

Contact Tynetta 

Consult Service Directors