A critical analysis of evidence about the impacts of Faculty Development in systematic reviews: a systematic rapid evidence assessment

INTRODUCTION: Faculty Development (FD) encompasses a range of learning activities undertaken to prepare clinical teachers for their various roles as educators, leaders, and scholars. This article presents the findings of a systematic rapid evidence assessment that aimed to investigate the impact of FD on clinical teachers. METHODS: We searched the published and gray literature for systematic reviews of FD to identify evidence to help inform judgments about which kinds of FD activities are effective for which groups of clinical teachers. RESULTS: After screening the literature, we found seven systematic reviews met our inclusion criteria. Following a critical analysis of these reviews, we found that they contained a number of limitations in relation to their use of review methods and reporting of results. DISCUSSION: On the basis of the analysis presented in this systematic rapid evidence assessment, we conclude that the included reviews do not provide high-quality evidence to effectively support decisions about choices of FD activities, even where the review authors made positive claims about impact. Suggestions are provided to improve the quality of systematic reviews in this area.