Supporting medical science educators: A matter of self-esteem, identity, and promotion opportunities

Medical science educators are faculty members primarily responsible for teaching the medical sciences to healthcare profession students. These educators also have roles in other academic areas such as curriculum development, learner assessment, advising and mentoring, clinical duties, research, institutional service, leadership and administration. Academic institutions worldwide are increasingly focused on excelling in cutting-edge research, a major criterion for university rankings, which has led to significant resources and attention invested in those endeavours. At the same time, the primary goal of academic institutions is to educate and train healthcare professionals. As a result, medical science educators are often caught in the middle of these competing interests, leading to the ambiguity between personal career development and institutional priorities. It is in this context that we consider how medical science educators might navigate these issues and how academic institutions can support and strengthen this important cohort of faculty. First, with an attempt at humour, we begin by considering three stereotypical identities of medical science educators. We then discuss how the growing number of medical education associations and programs designed to support medical science educators are making a difference. Our goal is to provide a clear direction for the current career trajectory of medical science educators.