Faculty Responsibilities
The missions of Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine are education, research, and clinical and professional service.
Education is the defining mission of the school. Feinberg is committed to providing outstanding educational programs for physicians, other health care providers, and scientists to meet the needs of patients, families, and society. To achieve preeminence, the school’s educational programs must reflect and be relevant to the advancing frontiers of knowledge in their content and in how and where they are taught. The development of faculty educators and recruitment of the best possible students are high priorities for the school.
Research is vital to the intellectual quality and prestige of an academic medical center. As part of a great research University, Feinberg has as a central mission the discovery of new knowledge related to human biology and disease.
Providing the highest quality care for patients has been and will continue to be the driving force for the clinical faculty and an important mission of the school. The school’s faculty must always be able to maintain the highest standards of ethics and service to patients. For that reason, the school’s vision of the future includes not only the provision of high-quality care for patients and education for students but also the development of the structures and relationships necessary to serve the community and profession.
The faculty is the single most important resource of the medical school. The quality and success of the institution depend upon the intellectual environment created by an outstanding faculty and on the continuing commitment of the faculty to our academic mission. Northwestern’s faculty spans the full range of clinical and a broad range of basic science disciplines and is diverse, experienced, and committed to the academic mission. Many faculty members hold important national or international leadership positions in the academic and professional community.
Specific academic duties and responsibilities are assigned to faculty members by their department chairs. The nature of these assignments will be commensurate with the nature of the faculty appointment (for example, full time or contributed service). Feinberg has certain general expectations regarding faculty responsibility in the areas of education, research, patient care, and University service.
Education
The education of medical students is the primary academic responsibility of medical school faculty members. A faculty member also is expected to make contributions when appropriate to the graduate and continuing medical education programs of the school and McGaw Medical Center of Northwestern University, and when appropriate to PhD and allied health professions education. The quality of medical education at Northwestern is a function of the dedication and skills of faculty members, whose participation in educational programs is an integral part of their academic appointments.
Research
Full-time faculty members are expected to engage in life sciences and medical research and/or support the school’s research programs. Faculty members are expected to endorse and follow appropriate ethical standards in the pursuit of their research and other scholarly activities. Those engaged in research are expected to adhere to University research policy and procedures regarding grants and contracts, the protection of human and animal research subjects, and research safety issues. Faculty members are responsible for the conduct of research by the students, trainees, and staff members in their laboratories or clinical programs.
Part-time or contributed service faculty members who use their faculty titles and the University’s name to obtain grants or contracts to support research and training or in reporting and publishing their research must conform to University policies and procedures.
Patient Care
Northwestern University desires to provide all members of the community with high-quality health care through its clinical faculty and the affiliated hospitals of the McGaw Medical Center. Full- and part-time faculty members are expected to accept department patient care assignments within the scope of their clinical competence and experience. Faculty members who engage in patient care must do so in keeping with the medical profession’s highest ethical standards. Faculty clinicians should be committed to lifelong learning and University and community service.
University Service
In addition to scholarly pursuits, the medical faculty is expected to serve the school and University through committee and administrative work. Committee membership is an important component of a faculty member’s service function and one of the criteria by which faculty members are evaluated for promotion. Faculty members are encouraged to participate in the activities of external professional and scholarly organizations. In so doing, the faculty represents the University and medical school in the broader communities of science, medicine, and government.
This page last updated Apr 9, 2012