A faculty development program evaluation: from needs assessment to long-term effects, of the teaching skills improvement program.

Background: We evaluated whether the faculty development program, the Teaching Skills Improvement Program, met medical educators' needs at Hacettepe University Faculty of Medicine, Turkey. In a 1997 needs assessment survey, large proportions of 178 medical educators assessed their knowledge of educational issues and teaching skills as good or excellent. Nonetheless, 86% of the respondents stated they would like to participate in a future training program focused on the content indicated in the survey.

Description and Evaluation: In 1998, 83 faculty members took part in the program and expressed a high degree of satisfaction with its content and organization, as well as the course trainers' teaching. Most of the participants got high scores on a test of knowledge related to the course content and performed proficiently in a microteaching session.

Conclusion: Six months to a year later, large proportions of the participants reported using many of the training techniques in their teaching program.