Appendix 5

Clinician Scientist Survey Focus Groups Summary 10/16/00
CONCERNS AND ISSUES

Mentoring

1. Mentoring is not recognized or awarded.
2. There is no time or inclination for mentoring.
3. Faculty need help from mentors on how to read grant reviews.
4. There are few faculty knowledgeable enough about clinical research in order to be mentors.
5. Division chiefs as mentors may be biased toward what will be mentored.
6. Finding a good mentor is currently by luck.
7. Quality of mentoring depends on department, therefore is not uniform.

Collaboration

8. Collaboration is difficult because of competition.
9. Collaboration is an exception at UCSF.
10. Basic scientists and clinicians are divided.
11. There is inadequate information on other people’s work, therefore not enough collaboration.
12. There is little communication between researchers at various sites.
13. Grand Rounds method is outdated and needs to be updated in order to be more effective in sharing information.

Grants

14. Clinician scientists face competition from basic scientists for grants.
15. There is a lack of resources for feedback on grants.
16. Indirect costs provided by extramural grants are not returned to researchers for help with administrative and other costs not allowable as direct costs.
17. Too much money from grant is taken by administration.

Hiring and Promotion

18. Feeling of being self-employed as clinician scientist—each person is his/her own cost center.
19. Many junior faculty need to engage in clinical work to support his/her salary.
20. Hiring into the academic series should not be based solely on need for clinical care—adequate time for research is not provided or protected.
21. Clinical work is not recognized for promotions.
22. There are internal inconsistencies between departments on what is required for promotion.
23. Promotion criteria are not made clear early in the career.
24. Basic scientists staff promotion committees, and are biased towards basic and against clinical research.
25. Clinician scientists are unfairly held to same standard as basic researchers.
26. Junior faculty are not promoted due to "lack of independence" but collaboration should be encouraged.

Protected Time

27. Clinician scientists do not have sufficient protected time for research.
Medical Center
28. Low hospital salaries cause high staff turnover. This increases the time required for administrative activities and reduces the efficiency of clinician scientists.
29. Attention to Mission Bay has overshadowed SFGH’s concerns. The move to Mission Bay of the research institutes at SFGH will markedly reduce the stature and opportunities for clinical scientists at SFGH.
30. Inadequate hospital staffing is increasing the clinical load of clinician scientists.
31. Clinic overload negatively affects patient care.
32. Billing system problems cause incorrect payments and late payments to departments.

Value Systems

33. Undervalued clinician scientists have harder time obtaining lab space.
34. Teaching is undervalued.
35. Patient research not given as much value as basic research.
36. "Dry lab" research is third class at UCSF.
37. Most clinicians are not in Academic Senate, therefore they have less power to influence policies.
38. Leaders do not support clinical care because leaders do not practice in clinics.

University Systems

39. Lack of administrative support.
40. Delayed accounting causes problems for budget analysis.
41. There is gender inequality due to few female faculty conducting patient research with FTEs.
42. Clinician scientists struggle with balancing teaching, patient care and research.
43. Administration provided little assistance for research.
44. Faculty should be paid for teaching.
45. Difficulty in getting paperwork through Contracts and Grants Department.
46. Clinical loads vary by department, therefore it is difficult to create university-wide policies on workload for faculty.
47. There is not enough office/lab space to do research and hire support staff.
48. Equipment grant received, but there was no space for the equipment.
49. Department provides little financial support for travel expenses and administrative support.

PROPOSED SOLUTIONS

Mentoring

1. Mentoring should be of the same quality in every department.
2. Analyze current mentoring programs.
3. Assign two mentors for each faculty.
4. Mentoring should be part of evaluations and linked to promotions.
5. Mentors can assist faculty to make plans, set goals, review goals, offer assistance.
6. Mentors should not be assigned; mentoring should be voluntary.
7. Mentoring should be part of job description.
8. Mentoring should be formally administered from top down, with resources and administrative support.
9. Mentors need not be in same department or division as mentored faculty.
10. Create list of available mentors.
11. Separate mentors from project to ensure unbiased assistance.
12. Senior faculty should be judged on quality of mentoring junior faculty.
13. Provide assistance on how to organize work hours and grant writing.
14. Two types of mentoring needed: career mentoring of junior faculty; research mentoring and collaboration.
15. Junior faculty need different type of mentoring than faculty who have been at UCSF for longer period of time.
16. Mentoring programs should cross school, department, division boundaries.
17. Create faculty development program.

Collaboration

18. Enhance collaboration by: encourage collaboration between basic researchers and clinicians; designate some Mission Bay space to create interdisciplinary center; create database of projects; encourage collaboration in promotion criteria.
19. Promote team effort and collaboration.
20. Create directory of collaborative work.
21. Centralize effort to coordinate collaboration.
22. Establish a system of communication of collaborative works so equipment can be shared.
23. Collaboration should be top down support and effort.
24. Encourage collaboration but do not expect a clinician scientist to have two full-time jobs.
25. Conduct mandatory meetings between clinicians and basic scientists to share information on projects.

Grants

26. Faculty need grant-writing assistance from experts.
Hiring and Promotion
27. Increase salary for junior faculty to include housing increase.
28. Provide junior faculty with package of: lab space, mentor, protected time, administrative support, start-up grant.
29. Demonstrate at time of hire how much protected time faculty is entitled to; at evaluation, verify that protected time is consistent with original and/or future career goals.
30. Aligning faculty by program, not departments would increase collaboration.
31. Evaluate department chair by how successfully junior faculty are promoted/mentored.
32. Academic Senate should conduct survey of faculty awareness of promotion criteria and junior faculty awareness of expectations.
33. Provide orientation for junior and new faculty
34. Define initial recruitment package
35. Educate junior and new faculty on promotion criteria.
36. Annual evaluation should be by someone other than supervisor or department chair.
37. Initial recruitment needs: lab space, administrative support, mentor.
38. Revise promotion handbook to include specific curriculum vitae examples.
39. Provide uniform information to department chairs on promotion criteria.
40. Conduct review of CAP’s reviews for promotion.
41. Create different promotion criteria for clinician scientists and basic scientists.
42. Eliminate need for grants in promotion.
43. Notify faculty, promotion committees, and administration that obtaining grants is not criterion for promotion.
44. Recognize and promote translational research.
45. Publicize clinical loads when promoting.
46. Collaboration should be an asset in promotion criteria.

Medical Center

47. Medical center should be self-sufficient, and the University should not provide too much funding for the medical center.
48. Clinical operation should be effective, funded and supported with adequate administrative staff.
49. Examine how hospital issues affect junior faculty.
Value Systems
50. University should value teaching.
51. Clinical research should be valued as much as basic research.
52. University should examine how to maintain and sustain group of clinicians who do good research.
53. University should examine how to invest in the future of clinical research.
54. University should examine how to value clinicians.
55. Include clinical and adjunct faculty in Academic Senate activities.
56. Create top-down statement of equal support for clinical research and basic research.

University Systems

57. Identify and define clinician scientists.
58. Pressure departmental chairs to treat all faculty equally.
59. Provide lab space for clinical research.
60. Department chairs should communicate expectations to new faculty.
61. Provide explanation of series.
62. University should provide: department structure, budget support, statistical support, accounting support, administrative assistance, method for collaboration.
63. Increase student tuition to support teaching.
64. Standardize clinical loads and teaching requirements throughout departments.
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