The Needs of an Educator

A medical educator has needs that are specific to educators and needs that are common to all medical faculty members. An educator needs time to perform educational duties; space to carry out educational activities; and money to buy time, space, and other resources. Just as important as time, space, and money are to the success of an educator is having an infrastructure that supports the educator and the educational mission. Such an infrastructure includes a system that provides educational leadership opportunities, institutional support for medical education, opportunities and funding for medical education research, students, feedback from students and peers, faculty development and mentoring, national societal support for education, and an institutional agenda that values education to the degree that it values patient care and investigative research.