2004 OPEN FORUM Abstracts
A MODEL FOR FACULTY PRACTICE: ADDRESSING EDUCATIONAL AND CLINICAL CHALLENGES.
Baker RR, PhD RRT RCPT; Mishoe SC, PhD RRT FARRC; Taft AA,
PhD RRT; Hall CR, MS RRT-NPS RPFT; Dennison FD, MS RRT RPFT; Reyes
JJ, BS RRT-NPS; Hernlen K, MBA RRT; Lambert AM, MBA BSN. Medical
College of Georgia. Augusta, Georgia.
The
Challenges Faced: Professional and technical programs are being
challenged to achieve superior educational outcomes with shrinking
budgets and fewer faculty. When vacant positions are available, they
can be difficult to fill. In many communities, the health care
industry is facing similar challenges. Hospitals are struggling to
meet the needs of the population it serves while dealing with
unprecedented challenges associated with economic constraints, the
increasing needs of an aging society, staff vacancies and greater
workloads linked to compliance with HIPAA and regulatory agencies.
Consequently, the environment for educating respiratory therapy
students is also changing. There are fewer dollars to support faculty
in the clinical setting at the same time that community
resources available for teaching clinical rotations
are decreased.
We developed a practice plan
model that integrated faculty-led
clinics into a respiratory care service department to meet current
educational and clinical practice goals.
Desired Outcomes: Educational objectives included the use of experienced clinical
educators to provide training to students during developmental
clinics, the maintenance of faculty clinical skills, and the
development of new revenue sources to support the educational
program. The goals of our clinical
partner included the presence of faculty in the clinical setting to
enhance the quality of clinical practice, provision of respiratory
care by the faculty and students to help offset staffing shortages,
and the recruitment of students with state-of-art knowledge onto the
clinical staff.
The Faculty Practice Model: In our current 2+2
baccalaureate program model, students are scheduled for 860 hours of
clinical time. Forty-three percent (372 hours) of this time is in
faculty-led clinics. Community affiliates provide preceptors for
students scheduled in specialty clinics and a clinical externship for
168 hours and 320 hours, respectively. The faculty-led student
clinics were restructured to assist with the staffing and patient
care needs of our affiliate. Junior-year, basic care
clinics were scheduled in two, eight-hour shifts from 6:30 am
to 3:30 pm and 3:00 pm to 11:00 pm to provide “while awake”coverage
for a floor assignment. The two intensive care clinics for senior students
were scheduled for 12 hour shifts from 6:30 am to
7:00 pm. The maximum faculty-to-student ratios were 1:5 and 1:4 for
the floor and intensive care clinics, respectively. The number and
type of procedures completed and the actual faculty time in clinic
were recorded and used to determine productivity in faculty-led
clinics.
Outcomes: The restructured clinic schedule met the
educational needs of the students and supported the staffing needs of
the clinical site. Faculty provided 688 hours of patient care and
completed 1,969 procedures with students during the 2003 to 2004
academic year. Overall faculty productivity was 89.5%. This matched
the productivity benchmark for respiratory therapy clinical staff.
Based upon the redesigned faculty-led clinical rotations and the
productivity data, the clinical affiliate contracted to pay for the
clinical and educational services provided by respiratory therapy
faculty. To date the implemented practice plan appears to be
achieving the goals of each partner.
Conclusions: Current
educational and health care challenges require creative solutions.
Involving academic faculty in health care delivery during clinical
rotations provides educational and practice benefits to both the
academic program and the clinical facility. This model for faculty
practice achieved a revenue stream to the educational program, while
addressing the needs for clinical education of respiratory therapy
students and a solution to staffing shortages for the clinical
affiliate.