The use of mentors and partnerships in a preparing future faculty program at a Health Sciences Center

IntroductionPreparing Future Faculty (PFF) is a national effort to give graduate students opportunities to receive mentorship in teaching and academic careers. The PFF Program, founded in 2005, expands this program to Academic Health Center (AHC) graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, such as pharmacy. The objectives (1) assessed the number/type of institution/department partnerships, as well as the unique types of content mentors added to the program since its inception, and (2) outlined the number of PFF graduates and their current career status.MethodsPFF is a two-semester interprofessional program (fall = weekly teaching methods course and spring = teaching field placements at partnering institutions). Two program mentors are utilized: (1) a teaching mentor/program director who delivers course content and evaluates teaching and (2) a content mentor who is the course coordinator/faculty at the partnering institution.ResultsThe number of partnerships has grown from 5 to 15 institutions, the number of department partnerships has grown from 1 to 11, and the number of content mentors has grown from 5 to 30 (six in pharmacy). Of note, ten of the content mentors are PFF alumni. In total, 68 PFF students have completed the program, seven graduates were from Pharmacy. The majority of the PFF graduates who have completed their degree or training have secured faculty positions; five of the seven PFF graduates in pharmacy became faculty members.DiscussionPFF is a sustainable program for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows at an AHC to learn how to teach in an academic setting.