An Innovative, Comprehensive Faculty Recruitment and Development Program at One U.S. Dental School: Early Results

Dental faculty recruitment and development are critical to replenish and cultivate sufficient and adequately prepared educators to educate future generations of dentists. At Rutgers School of Dental Medicine, the From Practice to Preceptor (FP2P) program, now in the last of its five years of funding from the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), has an overall aim of recruiting, training, and retaining a diverse and well-prepared dental faculty workforce. The FP2P program introduced novel methods for recruiting and preparing new faculty members since its goal is to help participants transition from being practicing dentists to becoming part- or full-time faculty members. The recruitment and selection process has emphasized reaching community practitioners in general or pediatric dentistry, individuals from underrepresented groups, and those with a passion for teaching. The two-year program with weekly meetings was designed to develop participants' skills to meet the teaching, clinical, and administrative roles of dental faculty. The aims of this study were to determine if the program recruitment methods used would result in participants who were more ethnically and racially diverse than the school's current faculty and to determine if, after training, participants perceived they had increased knowledge, skills, and abilities in specified areas as compared to before training. Participants completed pre- and post-program surveys assessing their perceived level of preparedness in critical competencies for dental faculty. Surveys were completed by 94% of participants in cohorts one through four; 75% (n=15) of cohorts two and three completed both the pre- and post-program surveys, which were used for this analysis. Over 30% of the 35 participants to date were from an underrepresented group. Survey results suggest the participants increased their perceived preparedness in administrative, clinical, and educational competencies. Follow-up is needed to ascertain how many go on to become dental educators and whether they are better prepared to succeed as new faculty compared to nonparticipants.