For many healthcare professionals, an interest in academia begins long before they ever hold a faculty title.

It may start with serving as a clinical instructor or fieldwork educator. Perhaps it develops through mentoring colleagues, leading staff education, teaching continuing education, or being invited to assist with a laboratory session in an academic program.

These experiences can be incredibly rewarding. They also allow clinicians to discover something new about themselves:

I really enjoy teaching.

For some, that realization sparks an interest in taking the next step into academia.

Clinical instructors and fieldwork educators bring an especially valuable foundation to that transition. They already know how to guide learners, provide feedback, facilitate clinical reasoning, model professional behaviors, and help students progressively develop independence. They also bring something every health professions program values—contemporary clinical experience and an understanding of what today’s graduates need to be successful in practice.

The transition to academic faculty can be a natural next step. It also provides an opportunity to expand an educator’s knowledge and skills for a different teaching environment.

Building on Your Experience as a Clinical Educator

Clinical and academic educators share the same overarching goal: preparing knowledgeable, skilled, thoughtful healthcare professionals who can provide excellent patient care.

How they contribute to that goal, however, can look quite different.

Clinical instructors and fieldwork educators facilitate learning within the context of patient care. The clinical environment provides rich opportunities for students to integrate knowledge, develop clinical reasoning, refine hands-on skills, communicate with patients and other professionals, and grow toward greater independence.

Academic faculty help build the foundation that makes those clinical experiences possible.

Faculty may be responsible for designing courses, establishing learning objectives, selecting instructional strategies, developing assessments, evaluating student performance, participating in curriculum development, and ensuring learning experiences align with professional competencies and accreditation expectations.

In other words, the educational skills developed in clinical practice do not disappear when someone enters academia.

They expand.

The clinician who has learned how to ask a student the right question during a patient encounter may now need to consider how clinical reasoning develops across an entire course or curriculum.

The fieldwork educator who has provided formative feedback to individual learners may now be designing assessment strategies for an entire cohort.

The clinical instructor who has evaluated whether a student is ready for greater independence may begin thinking about how faculty determine readiness for progression through a curriculum and ultimately into clinical education.

The clinical educator’s experience remains highly valuable—it simply becomes part of a broader academic role.

Academic Faculty Work Extends Beyond Teaching

One of the most helpful things clinicians can do when considering academia is learn about the full scope of faculty work.

Teaching is certainly central, but academic faculty responsibilities often extend well beyond delivering content.

Depending on the institution and faculty appointment, responsibilities may include advising and coaching students, curriculum development, assessment, accreditation, committee and university service, scholarship, program evaluation, and ongoing professional development.

For clinicians accustomed to productivity models centered around patient care, this broader definition of workload may be new. Understanding it before entering academia provides an opportunity to make an informed decision about whether academic life aligns with your interests and professional goals.

It can also help clinicians recognize where their existing strengths translate immediately—and where additional preparation could help.

Different Environments, Complementary Expertise

The distinction between clinical and academic education should not suggest that one is more important than the other.

Healthcare education needs both.

Clinical instructors and fieldwork educators help students translate knowledge into practice. Academic faculty help students develop the foundational knowledge, skills, reasoning, and professional behaviors they will need when they enter clinical environments.

Many educators will contribute to both.

A clinical instructor may become an adjunct faculty member. A fieldwork educator may begin teaching laboratory sessions. An experienced clinician may eventually pursue a full-time academic appointment while maintaining clinical practice. An academic faculty member may continue practicing clinically to maintain contemporary expertise.

Each experience can strengthen the other.

The opportunity is to recognize that moving into academia is not abandoning your identity as a clinician or clinical educator. Instead, it is expanding the ways in which you can contribute to your profession.

Preparing for the Next Step

If academia interests you, begin by learning about the faculty roles available within your profession and the qualifications expected for them.

Requirements vary based on the profession, institution, accrediting requirements, and type of faculty appointment. Some positions may require or prefer terminal academic degrees such as a PhD, EdD, or other doctoral preparation. Others may place significant value on clinical doctoral education, specialty certification, contemporary expertise, teaching experience, scholarship, or combinations of these qualifications.

Adjunct, laboratory, clinical education, and core faculty positions may also have very different expectations.

Faculty development does not replace the academic credentials or professional qualifications required for a position. Instead, it complements those qualifications by helping clinicians understand the environment they are preparing to enter.

That is where intentional preparation can make a meaningful difference.

Supporting the Transition Through FCAE

Evidence In Motion’s Faculty Certification in Academic Excellence (FCAE) was designed for healthcare educators and clinicians interested in transitioning into academia.

The 28-week, six-course, faculty-led online program helps participants develop knowledge, skills, and confidence across the academic faculty role. Topics include academic governance and leadership, teaching and learning science, curriculum and course design, assessment, student success and coaching, scholarship, strategic growth, and program assessment.

FCAE is not a stand-alone qualification for a faculty appointment. Rather, it provides structured professional development to help clinicians and early-career faculty better understand the expectations, language, tools, and responsibilities of health professions academia.

Your clinical experience gives you something valuable to bring to students. Your experience as a clinical instructor or fieldwork educator provides an even stronger foundation.

Academic faculty development can help you build on that foundation and prepare for the next way you may choose to influence your profession.

Learn More About FCAE

The Faculty Certification in Academic Excellence is a six-course online certification designed for PTs, PTAs, OTs, OTAs, SLPs, early-career faculty, and healthcare professionals interested in academic education.

Learn more about the curriculum, upcoming cohorts, tuition, admissions requirements, or apply through the EIM Faculty Certification in Academic Excellence program page.