Tenure Track in Emergency Medicine☆,☆☆,★
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INTRODUCTION
The importance of obtaining tenure has been ingrained at most American colleges and universities for many years. The two most important reasons are academic freedom and economic security. In addition, tenure historically has served to provide freedom of expression on the part of faculty and protection against unjust actions on the part of the university.1, 2 Tenure is also seen by many as a form of recognition and reward.1
More than 95% of the medical schools in the United States and Canada
MATERIALS AND METHODS
The first part of this study involved a survey of all 108 approved US emergency medicine residency programs, conducted during the fall of 1995. The chair or chief of each program with a Residency Review Committee (Accreditation Council on Graduate Medical Education)–approved emergency medicine residency was sent a questionnaire to determine whether the program was affiliated with a medical school and, if it was affiliated, whether the program was a division or independent academic department in
RESULTS
One hundred properly completed surveys were returned, for a return rate of 93%. Eleven of the 100 surveyed programs (11%) were not affiliated with a medical school and were excluded from further analysis. Faculty at 36 of the 89 medical school–affiliated programs (40%) were not eligible for tenure. Some of these faculty members were based at community or county hospitals that were only loosely affiliated with a medical school, and other faculty members were not eligible for inclusion because
DISCUSSION
The results of our survey and the AAMC search revealed similar proportions of emergency medicine faculty who were tenured or on the tenure track. It is important to note that the mailed survey included only residency programs and included programs with both department and division status. In contrast, the AAMC data included only programs with department status, and schools with and without residency programs were included. In addition, the mailed survey sought data from the chair/chief of the
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Cited by (0)
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From the Department of Emergency Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN.
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Reprint no. 47/1/85427
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Address for reprints: Seth W Wright, MD, 703 Oxford House, Department of Emergency Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN 37212, 615-936-0087, Fax 615-936-1316, E-mail [email protected]