In 2023-24, GME held 3 Academic Boot Camps (ABCs), all virtually via Microsoft Teams:

2023-24 Academic Year 

Program Description 

The Developing Effective Faculty Teachers (DEFT) program is designed to improve the performance of trainees in WSUSOM's residency programs and the program learning environment by strengthening the educational skills of our core and community faculty. 

Faculty participants will have access to a peer network of support, complete a series of online learning activities, participate in formative interactive learning experiences, and develop innovative and effective curricular or assessment tools to deploy in their program and publish as scholarship. WSUGME will support and guide faculty through these activities and award participants with a DEFT Certificate upon completion of the program. 

The DEFT curriculum is built around principles of self-directed learning and features a set of online modular learning resources that can be organized to fit the participant's own learning plan. By working with WSUGME and program's faculty, participants design and implement individual learning goals. The DEFT curriculum requires participants to apply new skills in teaching and to gather feedback from learners and peers to help them reflect upon and strengthen their educational effectiveness. 

Faculty who complete the DEFT program will have gained expertise in

• giving and receiving feedback;
• identifying and remediating learners' deficiencies;
• generating new, powerful tools to enhance their program's effectiveness and stability; and
• fortifying the learning environment to improve learning, physician wellness, and ultimately patient care.

The WSUGME recognizes the centrality of an effective faculty to residents' professional development and to the provision of excellent clinical care. The DEFT program is designed to help our faculty apply and hone their educational skills. 

Program Curriculum

The DEFT curriculum is built on a base of knowledge developed through online learning modules emphasizing adult learning theory and practical teaching methods that have proven effective in clinical bedside and classroom settings. Building on this knowledge, participants can attend interactive sessions designed to strengthen their teaching skills and further develop their educational instincts. With these skills and with this support system, faculty then generate novel and practical educational tools and implement them in their programs. These tools serve as a capstone project for the DEFT program, earning the participant a DEFT Certificate from WSUGME and more importantly adding direct value to the residency program and, when published, to the field of graduate medical education.