TAGME Faculty Development and Supervision 5 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A clinical educator repeatedly praises a resident's communication skills when evaluating their procedural competency. Which rater error is occurring?
- Contrast effect
- Halo effect (Correct answer)
- Attribution error
- Framing effect
Correct answer: Halo effect
The halo effect occurs when a positive impression in one domain inappropriately influences ratings in unrelated domains.
Question 2: Which ACGME Core Competency is MOST directly addressed when a faculty development program trains attendings to teach evidence-based medicine at the bedside?
- Interpersonal and Communication Skills
- Practice-Based Learning and Improvement (Correct answer)
- Systems-Based Practice
- Professionalism
Correct answer: Practice-Based Learning and Improvement
Practice-Based Learning and Improvement includes using evidence from scientific studies and applying it to patient care and teaching.
Question 3: An institution wants faculty to integrate wellness conversations into resident supervision. Which approach is MOST effective for sustaining this behavior change?
- One-time grand rounds presentation on burnout
- Mandating wellness documentation in evaluations
- Longitudinal faculty coaching with accountability check-ins (Correct answer)
- Distributing wellness brochures at orientation
Correct answer: Longitudinal faculty coaching with accountability check-ins
Longitudinal coaching with accountability structures produces sustained behavioral change more reliably than single didactic events or passive interventions.
Question 4: Which ACGME requirement mandates that programs must have a process to assess whether faculty members are meeting their supervisory and teaching responsibilities?
- Annual Program Evaluation (APE)
- Faculty evaluation by residents and the program (Correct answer)
- Clinical Competency Committee review
- Accreditation Data System report
Correct answer: Faculty evaluation by residents and the program
ACGME requires programs to evaluate faculty performance using data that includes resident assessments of faculty teaching and supervision.
Question 5: A new faculty member trained in a different specialty is asked to supervise subspecialty procedures outside their training. What is the program director's FIRST obligation?
- Allow supervision if the faculty member agrees
- Verify competency before granting supervisory privileges (Correct answer)
- File a waiver with the ACGME
- Assign a co-supervisor from another institution
Correct answer: Verify competency before granting supervisory privileges
Programs must ensure that supervising faculty have documented competence in the specific skills they are overseeing before assigning supervisory roles.
Question 6: In the setting of faculty development, 'deliberate practice' is BEST characterized by which approach?
- Repeated exposure to a wide variety of clinical cases without structured feedback
- Focused repetitive practice on specific skills with immediate corrective feedback (Correct answer)
- Observing expert faculty perform procedures over an extended period
- Self-directed reading about educational theory
Correct answer: Focused repetitive practice on specific skills with immediate corrective feedback
Deliberate practice, as defined by Ericsson, involves focused repetition on targeted skills with immediate, specific feedback to drive improvement.
Question 7: A program director wants to identify faculty who may need additional development support. Which data source provides the MOST direct evidence of a faculty member's teaching effectiveness?
- Faculty publication record
- Resident evaluations of faculty teaching (Correct answer)
- Faculty attendance at departmental meetings
- Faculty self-assessment surveys
Correct answer: Resident evaluations of faculty teaching
Resident evaluations of faculty provide direct, observable data on teaching effectiveness from the perspective of the learners being supervised.
TAGME Faculty Development and Supervision 5
A clinical educator repeatedly praises a resident's communication skills when evaluating their procedural competency.
Which rater error is occurring?