Journal of Case Reports and Reviews in Medicine (ISSN: 3069-0749)
Commentary Volume: 1 & Issue: 1
Abstract
Lifelong learning is synonymous with the practice of Medicine, including the extremely robust, complex and everchanging specialty of Emergency medicine. The spectrum of educational offerings for faculty has also increased exponentially with very wide range of training, courses and teachings, spanning the formal, informal and non-formal educational categories. Faculty development is a fundamental and essential part of the practice of Emergency Medicine (EM). This comes alongside the multitude of challenges facing faculty today in the execution of their many roles: the need for high quality service in the practice of EM, output in terms of scholarly activities, personal growth and development as well as striving to attain work-life balance. There are also many factors that can affect or influence faculty development such as temporal factors, personal factors, environmental factors, key roles they play, as well as social relationships. Against this background, EM faculty must fit in formal, informal as well as non-formal learning activities, according to what suits them the best. How can we uplift awareness and recognition of the informal and non-formal offerings? What steps can an Emergency Physician as well as the institution take, to start the process of recognition? How do we engage employers, faculty and other staff to jump onto this bandwagon appropriately and make the relevant, acceptable choices? The author shares her perspective on this new and evolving, but extremely important area. Afterall, some 90% of what we learn are acquired from the informal and non-formal educational contexts.