ACE Malta

Faculty Development

What's it all about?

Medicine is learnt with, from, and for patients (Evans & Brown, 2015). You cannot learn to take a history without talking to real patients; you cannot learn to examine without real humans in front of you; you cannot develop clinical judgement without real uncertainty in real clinical situations. Clinical teaching is, quite simply, essential.

The word 'doctor' comes from the Latin docere -- to teach. Teaching has been a core professional role of the doctor since before Hippocrates' time, and yet it has only been relatively recently that there has been a serious focus on helping doctors learn more about the science and craft of teaching. We would not accept that a clinician needs no training in clinical practice. The same is true of teaching.

Teaching is a skill. It can be learnt, and it can be improved. There is a rich body of evidence on how teachers can maximise learning: on feedback, motivation, deliberate practice, and what actually works in clinical settings. Faculty development is the collective term for all the ways we support clinical teachers to develop in their role: the formal workshops, the reflective conversations, the quiet accumulation of craft.

When we say 'clinical'...

It is fascinating how differently words are used in different contexts. In education, the word 'competence' means very different things to different people. In the UK, the word 'clinical' usually refers to anything that takes place in patient care settings. In Malta, 'clinical' often means 'medical' or 'doctor-related'. Here, we use it in the broader sense: all work within patient care settings, not only doctor-related work. Eight years into the project and we are still finding out these small things that mean a great deal.

Our curriculum is dependent on the entire healthcare team, and interprofessional learning (learning with, from and about each other) is a core strand that runs throughout the QMUL (Barts) Malta course.

So when we say 'clinical teacher' or 'faculty development', our concept of this is inclusive: not only the fantastic senior and junior doctors, but also the brilliant nurses, physios, OTs, radiographers, phlebotomists, ward clerks and GP receptionists, and all the other members of the team without whom patient care would not happen. We value you all.

What do we do?

The QM (Barts) Malta Faculty Development team supports the full range of clinical educators across Malta and Gozo. In practice this means:

Induction and orientation: if you are new to teaching for us, we have materials to help you understand the curriculum, what to expect from our students, and how everything fits together.

Faculty development workshops: a growing catalogue of interactive sessions, mostly online and each around 60 minutes, covering the core aspects of teaching practice. Free to attend, with certificates mapped to the main teaching portfolios.

Bedside Teaching Evaluation Record (BeTER) and the Bedside Teaching Award: a simple QR code system that lets students give you personalised, anonymous feedback in the moment. Takes seconds to set up. Each year, the teacher who has collected the strongest student feedback through BeTER is presented with the Bedside Teaching Award at the graduation ceremony. Set up your QR code and you are automatically in the running.

Clinical Teachers' Conference: once a year we bring the clinical teaching community together for a half-day conference: interactive workshops, hands-on practice, and the chance to meet colleagues from across the Malta and Gozo sites. It is free to attend and has rapidly become one of the highlights of the faculty development calendar.

Faculty Development Newsletter: published three or four times a year, with updates from the school, summaries of recent research, and practical ideas from the medical education literature.

Annual Review of Teaching (ART): a friendly structured conversation with an experienced colleague, helping you look back over the year and plan ahead. Around 20 minutes; you leave with a report you can use as evidence for your portfolio.

What can you find on these pages?

These pages are the hub for all faculty development information at QM (Barts) Malta. Here you will find an overview of who we are and how to contact us; orientation and briefing materials for clinical tutors, SSC tutors and CBL tutors; the workshop catalogue and booking information; details of the ART process; instructions for setting up your BeTER QR code; back issues of the newsletter; links to external development opportunities; and a little more about the wider world of medical education, if you are curious.

If you have a question, a suggestion, or you are simply not sure where to start, email us at faculty-development-malta@qmul.ac.uk. We are friendly, and we are here to help.