The Promotion Game

Academic medicine can be the most challenging and rewarding job on the planet if you know how to play the game. Unfortunately, many newly trained faculty members do not know the rules of the game. This short guidebook will help you learn the rules and win big.

Medical college faculty train many years to learn a field, but receive little advice on success in the world of academia. While passing on knowledge and skills to new learners is rewarding, attaining promotion and tenure requires another skill set. Academic success can be approached as a game, one with rules and strategy that those in the know can use to their advantage. This guidebook provides an overview of the promotion game with special attention for clinical faculty; however, much of its advice will be useful for others within the academic health center as well.

Pascale Hammond Lane, MD, is a Professor of Pediatrics specializing in nephrology, the study and treatment of kidney diseases. She has worked in faculty development, including mentoring for promotion and tenure, at a number of medical colleges.