MERC at CORD Scholars Program

Medical Education Research Certificate Program

The Council of Residency Directors in Emergency Medicine (CORD) recently partnered with the AAMC to create a unique experience to fulfill an important faculty development need within emergency medicine. This joint venture adds the experiential dimension of a mentored education research project to the traditional independent learner model of the MERC workshops. Collaborative groups, each with multi-institutional representation are developed based on a common area of interest. Specialty specific mentors guide each group from initial research hypothesis generation through publication. Several programs have demonstrated that collaborative research projects appear to be an effective, problem based approach to learning research methods that facilitate ongoing networks of researchers. The goals of the MERC at CORD Scholars Program include: 1) to develop a venue to support individual faculty development, 2) to promote medical education research within the specialty of Emergency Medicine, 3) to create a community of medical education researchers/mentors and 4) to facilitate collaboration and multi-institutional research.

Purpose

The Medical Education Research Certificate program is intended to provide the knowledge necessary to understand the purposes and processes of medical education research, to become informed consumers of the medical education research literature, and to be effective collaborators in medical education research. By itself, the MERC is not intended to produce independent medical education researchers. The program is open to all who are interested in improving their educational research skills and is targeted for those with a background in medical education but relatively less experience in conducting educational research. The courses are targeted for clinicians and other educators who desire to learn research skills that will enable collaborative participation in medical education research projects.

Curriculum

The curriculum of the program consists of a set of workshops, each of which focuses on a key skill or area in educational research. Workshops are typically three hours in length and are facilitated by an experienced medical education researcher. The workshops emphasize opportunities for hands-on activities and active participation so as to maximize the applicability of the workshop principles. Six workshops of the participant's choosing are required for the certificate. These can be taken in any order.

Requirements & Commitment

This program is a professional development opportunity for those Emergency Physicians who are serious about taking the next step in developing the tools/skills necessary to contribute to education research.  As such, it is a substantive commitment of time and energy over the coming year. 

• Our Pre-course survey of the participants must be completed (e.g. experience, opinions, areas of interest, etc) and an up-to-date CV for each must be submitted
• It is important that each candidate understand the commitment involved in successfully completing this program and agree that they realistically believe that they can participate in each phase of the course over the coming year.  We recommend that your chair be made aware of this commitment so he/she can support you in your efforts.  The commitment you are about to make includes:
  • The first two workshops are held as a pre-meeting before the CORD Academic Assembly. Subsequent workshops will be held virtually in the year. Participants are expected to complete a total of 6 workshops.
  • Participation and substantial contribution to a mentored, multi-institutional education research project.  This project is estimated to take 1-2 years to complete.
  • Interested parties not enrolled in the program are not allowed to participate in the MERC at CORD mentored medical education research project, be included on educational emails from the MERC Committee or do the work on the project for the participants
    • It is ok to get assistance from workshop directors or other resources when it comes to literature searches, statistics, etc but not for junior faculty or residents to do the work assigned to the participant.
  • The intention of the MERC at CORD Scholars Program is to engage candidates who are committed to making the most of this opportunity and completing the program.  
    • It is understood that there will occasionally be unavoidable circumstances that may prevent participants from making all the workshops in a given year with their class.
      These may be made up at another time such as national/regional AAMC meetings or freestanding MERC workshops at CORD.
    • Should participants miss 1 or more workshops, the MERC Committee (i.e. MERC Director plus mentors) will determine whether this prevents meaningful participation in the project and completion of the program.

For online registration to attend CORD sponsored workshop(s). We accept Visa, Mastercard, American Express or check. Please indicate the workshop date and event and attendee name on your check. Mail checks to CORD, 4950 W. Royal Lane, Irving, TX 75063.