Professional development for clerkship administrators: a 16-year overview of the clerkship administrator certificate program

Background: Increasing accreditation requirements as well as transformations in medical school curricula necessitate administrative staff who are not only invested in the clerkship coordinator role but also view what they do as a career. To date, there has been a lack of professional development opportunities for clerkship administrators. Methods: In 2003, the Central Group on Educational Affairs of the Association of American Medical Colleges recognized a need for professional development for clerkship administrators. The Clerkship Administrator Certificate Program emerged from that decision and presented for the first time in 2004 in Omaha, Nebraska. This article provides an overview of the program, how it has been evaluated, and how it continues to evolve. Results: The program had two guiding principles: to offer professional development opportunities for clerkship administrators through interactive workshops and to ensure the program was feasible both in terms of completion and in cost. Over the past 16 years, the Clerkship Administrator Certificate Program workshops have been delivered to over 300 clerkship administrators. Of those, 206 have completed a project in order to receive their certificate. Projects have related to innovations in medical education (n = 41), grading (n = 26), professional development (n = 26), and patient care (n = 20) to name a few. Discussion: In order to meet the demands for presenting the workshops, a train-the-trainer model has been employed to expand the number of individuals presenting the workshops. Additional research needs to be done to determine influence of the program on future professional development endeavors.