Clinical Track Faculty

Who this pathway is for

You are energized by developing people.

You see teaching not as something separate from clinical care, but as embedded within it. You shape how learners think, reason, and act. Your influence shows up in the confidence of new nurses, the growth of graduate students, and the strength of the clinical workforce.

In this pathway, your academic identity is grounded in clinical teaching excellence.

What academic impact looks like

Your impact may include:

• Consistent, high-quality precepting of undergraduate or graduate students
• Clinical supervision that strengthens diagnostic reasoning and patient safety
• Teaching contributions in simulation, skills labs, or didactic settings
• Designing or improving onboarding, orientation, or competency frameworks
• Developing tools for feedback and learner assessment
• Mentoring early career faculty or preceptors in teaching roles

You are known as someone who can teach complex, high-stakes clinical work clearly and effectively.

What progression looks like

Advancement in this pathway reflects increasing:

• Teaching excellence and documented learner outcomes
• Leadership in clinical education (e.g., simulation development, recurring guest lectures in your area of clinical expertise)
• Mentorship of early career educators
• Educational dissemination (presentations, workshops, publications)

At senior ranks, recognition extends beyond your immediate unit to regional or national visibility for your contributions to clinical education.

This mirrors how clinical faculty advance in major academic health systems: excellence in teaching, sustained impact and growing leadership.

How this connects to academic engagement

Sustained engagement may qualify you for Grant-in-Aid benefits and advancement within the Clinical Track.

Assigned teaching roles remain compensated.

Academic engagement reflects the depth and consistency of your contribution.

Who this pathway is for

You see systems and processes — and how they can be better.

You notice variation in care, inefficiencies, or missed opportunities, and you take responsibility for improvement. You are motivated not only to fix problems but to document and share what works.

In this pathway, your academic identity is grounded in practice-based scholarship.

What academic impact looks like

Your impact may include:

• Leading or contributing to quality improvement initiatives with measurable outcomes
• Implementing evidence-based practice changes
• Developing clinical guidelines or care pathways
• Tracking and reporting outcome data
• Presenting improvement work internally or externally
• Publishing or disseminating practice innovation

Your scholarly contribution is demonstrated through outcomes, dissemination, and reproducibility — “we changed X, and here’s what happened.”

What progression looks like

Advancement reflects increasing:

• Scope and scale of improvement initiatives
• Measurable clinical impact
• Dissemination beyond the unit, service line or facility
• Collaboration across disciplines
• Mentorship of others in QI and scholarly work

At senior ranks, recognition extends regionally or nationally for clinical innovation, evidence-based leadership, or dissemination of outcomes.

This is consistent with how academic health systems define scholarship in clinical tracks: impact and dissemination matter as much as traditional grant funding.

How this connects to academic engagement

Sustained engagement and dissemination may support eligibility for Grant-in-Aid benefits and advancement.

Aligned with national clinical track faculty standards, this model defines scholarship through impact. The scholarship of practice advances health outcomes by translating evidence into care and demonstrating measurable clinical, educational and policy impact.

Who this pathway is for

You are motivated by systems-level improvement.

You shape programs, teams, service lines, and strategic initiatives. Your influence is organizational: you create the conditions that allow clinicians and learners to succeed.

In this pathway, your academic identity is grounded in leadership and system impact.

What academic impact looks like

Your impact may include:

• Leading a clinical program or service line
• Driving performance on quality, safety, or workforce metrics
• Building new models of care or care delivery innovations
• Establishing partnerships between academic and clinical units
• Leading accreditation, compliance, or regulatory initiatives
• Developing workforce pipelines or educational partnerships

You are accountable for results — and you demonstrate measurable improvement.

What progression looks like

Advancement reflects increasing:

• Scope of leadership responsibility
• System-level impact
• Visibility beyond the local unit
• Mentorship of emerging clinical leaders
• Dissemination of leadership and innovation efforts

At senior ranks, recognition extends regionally or nationally for programmatic leadership, workforce innovation, or academic-practice partnership development.

Major academic health systems explicitly recognize clinician-administrator portfolios as legitimate academic advancement pathways when leadership responsibilities are substantial and impact is documented.

How this connects to academic engagement

Academic engagement recognizes how your system-level work contributes to the academic mission.