Community Faculty
Community Faculty
The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, School of Medicine, invites eligible physicians in our community to be part of the cadre of faculty that will educate our future physicians. Partnering with our community clinicians, strengthens our ability to accomplish our medical school vision: To be a leader in the creation of a diverse and representative workforce, the stimulation of biomedical innovation, and the delivery of patient-centered health care for the Rio Grande Valley and beyond.
As a community faculty member, you can participate in various School of Medicine efforts that help us better serve our community. You will join a unique group of medical educators who volunteer their time in any of the following opportunities:
The UTRGV School of Medicine interviews over 300 applicants per year for 55 seats for the incoming class. As a community faculty, you can be part of the admission committee as a screener, interviewer, and evaluator. A minimum 5-hour time commitment is requested during application season from September to February.
As a community faculty, you can help medical students with career advising by counseling specific to your specialty, educating students about mentoring relationships, shadowing, and research opportunities, including which electives to pursue and which programs to target for residency application.
Community faculty can participate as facilitators in Clinical Skills helping to teach history and physical examination skills, Problem-Based Learning (PBL) leading clinical case wrap-ups as clinician experts and lecturing within PreClerkship and Clerkships courses. Community faculty can also serve on continuous quality improvement educational and clinical programming for the UME curriculum.
Practicing community faculty physicians can serve as a preceptor for medical students during clerkship years 3 and 4. The role of the clinical preceptor is to advance clinical skills essential for medical students’ competency in their clinical practice and the hospital setting.
You can become a research mentor to medical students, residents, and fellows. Your role will help them to advance their research skills by aiding their research experience by facilitating their opportunity for scientific inquiry, research, and scholarship.
Community faculty can participate in our Graduate Medical Education programs by participation in the education of residents and fellows. Based on specialty expertise, the community faculty member may serve as clinical faculty and/or serve as a guest lecturer for grand rounds or other conferences for GME program didactic activities throughout the year.
Eligibility Requirements
- Doctoral-level training or file-specific equivalent
- Texas licensed health care provider currently practicing in the Rio Grande Valley
Benefits of a Community Faculty Appointment
Take advantage of this rewarding opportunity to educate the next generation of physicians and collaborate with other community physicians to transform the future of healthcare in the Rio Grande Valley and beyond. Appointed community faculty may receive the following benefits:
- UTRGV email address.
- UTRGV ID badge.
- Free access to services from the UTRGV School of Medicine Libraries, including access to online professional journals, print and electronic books, medical apps, document delivery, and literature searching services.
- Free access to Microsoft Office applications including MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Access, Publisher.
- Included in faculty e-communication, including Dean’s monthly newsletters and other announcements.
- Invitations to special events hosted by the UTRGV School of Medicine.
- Early notification about professional development and discounted Continuing Medical Education (CME) opportunities in the Rio Grande Valley community.
- Invitations to participate in scholarly activity at UTRGV-hosted CME events as attendee and presenter.
- Opportunity to build a recruitment pipeline of UTRGV SOM graduates into your clinic.
- Eligibility for UTRGV recreational sports complex memberships for faculty/spouse/dependents on the UTRGV Brownsville and Edinburg campuses (annual membership fee required).
- Discounts on UTRGV athletics and event tickets.
- Discounts on selected items at UTRGV Bookstore.
Access to Training Opportunities
Community faculty has access to a variety of professional development opportunities offered by the Office of Faculty Affairs. For a complete list of current and future opportunities including links to register, here is a helpful link: Faculty Development Calendar.
Below you will find a sample of offerings helpful to all community faculty.
Promotion and Tenure Recorded Talk
Promotion Information Session (Community Faculty)
Goal: This session aims to enhance the understanding of the promotion process for community faculty.
Promotion Information Session (Part-Time Faculty)
Speaker: Robert Nelson, MD, MS, FAAP
Links: Video | Slides | Faculty Promotion & Tenure Guidelines
Goal
The UTRGV School of Medicine MedEd Teaching Certificate Program will enhance the professional development of clinical full-time and clinical volunteer faculty members as medical educators.
Objectives
Upon completion of this program, faculty will be able to:
- Demonstrate skills in teaching methods pertinent in medical education.
- Incorporate evidence-based medical education strategies that enhance learning.
- Implement active learning techniques and technology to promote student learning and engagement.
- Develop organizational plans for an educational innovation.
- Reflect on the teaching journey and experiences to establish an educational philosophy.
Covered Topics
- Future of Medical Education
- Learning Science
- Curriculum Design
- Peer-Teaching Observations
- Assessing for Learning
- Feedback Fundamentals
- Effective Clinical Instruction
- Small-Group Teaching
- Clinical Bedside Teaching
- Clinical Reasoning
- Educational Technology
- Learning Environment
Benefits
*Enhance teaching & learning
*Develop best practices as medical educators
*Advance in medical education career
*Increase career satisfaction
*Create a skilled educator community
*Ensure adherence to UME teaching standards
Certificate
A certificate of completion will be awarded by the Office of Faculty Affairs, UTRGV SOM, to faculty who satisfactorily complete the certificate requirements.
CME Credit
Available for up to 12 hours of CME.
Location
Sessions are normally offered at UTRGV SOM teaching sites. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, our interactive sessions may be via video-conference.
Application
Applicants must submit a letter of interest, curriculum vitae, and a letter of support from their chair via email to Stephanie.Salinas@utrgv.edu
MedEd Program Contact
Stephanie Salinas, Med
Education Specialist
Stephanie.Salinas@utrgv.edu