Anatomy education in an integrated curriculum: Importance and benefits of training and evaluation of clinical faculty

Curricular integration in its various forms has blurred traditional lines of science and clinical content areas while gaining popularity among U.S. medical schools. The new challenge an anatomy education is finding ways to integrate anatomy and other structural sciences into a seamless combination with clinical medicine, finding its value in the curriculum as whole, not in an individual course. Educational methods within an integrated curriculum are often described as “learner‐centered” and in order to fully succeed must be carried forth through all aspects of the curriculum, including anatomy. Science educators must be willing and able to join with clinical educators in developing approaches that support the educational mission of these curricula without limiting the scope of the content for which they are responsible. Core faculty members play a key role in educating a new cadre of clinical educators in the learner‐centered methods more appropriately termed “facilitation” than “teaching” in order to promote a consistent approach to learning. We describe a successful faculty development and evaluation program to recruit, train and nurture clinical faculty from multiple disciplines in the methods necessary to promote effective integration of structural science and clinical medicine.