Knowledge and use of academic portfolios among primary care departments in U.S. medical schools.
OBJECTIVE
Portfolios are used to summarize and communicate the academic accomplishments of faculty seeking career development and promotion.


METHODS
We assessed knowledge and use of the portfolio in a cross sectional survey of 435 academic chairpersons of family medicine and division directors of general internal medicine and general pediatrics.


RESULTS
Of the 241 respondents (55% response rate), 69% reported knowledge of portfolios and 55% used portfolios. Satisfaction with the source of information on a faculty candidate was greater when portfolios were used (85.5% of respondents) than when they were not used (67.3% of respondents; p = .01). Increased knowledge and use of portfolios was associated with respondents working at institutions with academic fellowships/advanced education programs or who had fellowship training (ps = .01).


CONCLUSIONS
Results suggest that leaders of primary care departments use portfolios to promote the career development of their faculty and that portfolio use is influenced by attitudes and training.
Zobairi
Sumaiya E
SE
Department of Family & Community Medicine, The University of Texas Medical School at Houston, Houston, Texas 77030, USA.
Nieman
Linda Z
LZ
Cheng
Lee
L
D002322:Career Mobility; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005180:Faculty, Medical; D006801:Humans; D007586:Job Application; D011320:Primary Health Care; D012577:Schools, Medical; D014481:United States