title: The Joint Council on Thoracic Surgery Education (JCTSE) "Educate the Educators" Faculty Development Course: Analysis of the First 5 Years.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Since 2010, the Joint Council on Thoracic Surgery Education, Inc (JCTSE) has sponsored an annual "Educate the Educators" (EtE) course. The goal is to provide United States academic cardiothoracic surgeons (CTS) the fundamentals of teaching skills, educational curriculum development, and using education for academic advancement. This report describes the course development and evaluation along with attendee's self-assessment of skills through the first 5 years of the program.
  
  
  METHODS
  The content of this 2½-day course was based on needs assessment surveys of CTS and residents attending annual meetings in 2009. From 2010 to 2014, EtE was offered to all CTS at training programs approved by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. Course content was evaluated by using end-of-course evaluation forms. A 5-point Likert scale (1 = poor, 5 = excellent) was used to obtain composite assessment mean scores for the 5 years on course variables, session presentations, and self-assessments.
  
  
  RESULTS
  With 963 known academic CTS in the United States, 156 (16.3%) have attended, representing 70 of 72 training programs (97%), and 1 international surgeon attended. There were also 7 program coordinators. Ratings of core course contents ranged from 4.4 to 4.8, accompanied with highly complementary comments. Through self-assessment, skills and knowledge in all content areas statistically improved significantly. The effect of the course was evaluated with a follow-up survey in which responders rated the program 4.3 on the usefulness of the information for their career and 3.9 for educational productivity.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The EtE program offers an excellent opportunity for academic CTS to enhance their teaching skills, develop educational activities, and prepare for academic promotion. With its unique networking and mentorship environment, the EtE program is an important resource in the evolution of cardiothoracic surgical training in the United States.
authors.affiliation: Division of Thoracic Surgery, Department of Surgery, The Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, Baltimore, Maryland. Electronic address: syang@jhmi.edu.
authors.forename: Stephen C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Division of Surgery, Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas.
authors.forename: Ara A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Vaporciyan
authors.affiliation: The Joint Council on Thoracic Surgery Education, Inc, Chicago, Illinois.
authors.forename: Rebecca J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Mark
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois.
authors.forename: Deborah A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: DaRosa
authors.affiliation: Office of Educational Development, School of Education, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
authors.forename: Frank T
authors.initials: FT
authors.lastname: Stritter
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California.
authors.forename: Maura E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Sullivan
authors.affiliation: Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Department of Surgery, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington.
authors.forename: Edward D
authors.initials: ED
authors.lastname: Verrier
mesh_terms: D003479:Curriculum; D005178:Faculty / Q000193:education*; D006801:Humans; D007396:Internship and Residency; D000070260:Teacher Training; D013903:Thoracic Surgery / Q000193:education*; D014481:United States