Cover Page
(Cover pages for all CE actions can be found here: Checklists + Cover Pages, and a list of guidelines and reminders for assembling packets may be found here: CE File Review Reminders)
The Faculty Affairs Administrator should make sure that all applicable fields and checkboxes are completed.
The “Appointment Summary” should be written and signed off by the department chair, FAA, and, optionally and if applicable, the division chief. This summary should:
- Evaluate the candidate against the criteria for the proposed action found in Chapter 3 of the School of Medicine Faculty Handbook.
- For example: promotion to Clinical Professor requires national recognition in their field. This recognition could come from clinical care, teaching, scholarship, administrative activities, national service, or other activities. Explain how they achieve this.
- For new appointments, describe how the candidate was identified (e.g., national search, current Stanford fellowship, faculty referral, etc.).
- Address any concerns in the file (e.g., negative teaching or CES feedback, negative comments from referees, etc.) and include a plan to rectify these, as applicable.
- Address discrepancies with supporting materials (e.g., why a letter of reference may be from a referee at a lower rank).
- For the Clinical Excellence Surveys, if there are too few responses based on the required categories and numbers (or missing responses from a required category), explain:
- How many people were solicited in those categories
- How many reminders were sent and when
- Whether the candidate does or doesn’t work with people in those categories (e.g., if the candidate does not work with any clinic managers, you are not required to solicit any).
- For the “Duties & Responsibilities” section, provide the candidate’s total FTE, duty allocations, and full description of responsibilities for each category (clinical care, teaching, scholarship, administrative activities, etc., as applicable).
- For the ‘Overall Department Summary and Impression’ section, address and summarize the Department’s overall impression of the candidate.
- For appointments and reappointments, describe candidate’s trajectory towards promotion.
- For Clinical Instructors that will be reappointed after three years into a benefits eligible position, justify why the candidate is not being promoted to Clinical Assistant Professor instead.
Curriculum Vitae
- Must be current, dated, and complete (biosketches will not be accepted).
- We recommend that you follow the sample CV template found in the Toolbox, but it is not required.
Candidate’s Statements
The candidate’s statement is the only section of the package in which a CE can have their voice heard directly. It is not required for Clinical Instructors and Clinical Assistant Professors. For Clinical Associate Professor and Clinical Professor appointments, it is optional for appointments and reappointments (but highly encouraged). However, it is required for promotions to these ranks.
Guidelines for writing the candidate’s statement can be found in the Evidence Tables + Guidelines section of the Toolbox. The candidate's statement should be a maximum of two pages in length and should be written in the first person. It should then include discussion of the candidate’s contributions and achievement in clinical care, teaching and mentorship, administration, scholarly activity, and other areas, as applicable.
Referee Letters: External and Internal
All appointments and promotions require letters of evaluation from experts inside and/or outside the School of Medicine. Request letters from referees using the solicitation letter template. Reappointment files do not require referee letters.
- Each referee must be able to provide a meaningful and substantive evaluation of the candidate against the relevant criteria from personal knowledge or from impartial evaluation of evidence of the candidate’s contributions.
- The author of the letter must be fully identified (name, rank, and institution).
- If the letter does not include this information, either in the letterhead or in the body of the letter, include it as an annotation on the letter header or footer.
- Referees, in general, are expected to have clinical experience.
- If a referee holds an academic appointment, it should be at a rank at least equal to that proposed for the candidate (e.g., do not ask an Associate Professor for a letter for a promotion to Clinical Professor).
- For each candidate, “external” and “internal” refers to referees based on the candidate’s home institution, not whether the referee is external or internal to Stanford.
- Example: if a Clinical Assistant Professor (Affiliated) at Kaiser Santa Clara is being promoted and needs an “internal” referee letter, someone at Stanford or any of its affiliated institutions who meets the above criteria should be the referee.
- Referees do not require approval by OAA (as they do for most Professoriate actions).
Evaluation of Teaching
Teaching is a core part of the responsibilities of a Clinician Educator, and excellence in teaching must be documented for CE actions. Documentation can include standardized teaching evaluations and/or a solicited survey from trainees.
Teaching Evaluations
- Stanford teaching evaluation tools include e*Value (core curriculum) and ASSU (electives) for medical student evaluations and MedHub for Residents.
- Please include all evaluations that can be obtained for the candidate’s current appointment term. There is no need to include evaluations from before the start of the current term.
Trainee Evaluations Surveys
- If standardized teaching evaluations are not available, then trainee evaluations may be solicited via an anonymous Qualtrics survey; a minimum of three survey responses is needed.
- Trainees solicited via Qualtrics should be obtained from the candidate’s current appointment term. Do not obtain/include surveys from trainees that trained under candidate before the start of the current term.
Evaluation of Clinical Excellence
Excellence in clinical care is evaluated by the Clinical Excellence Survey (CES), which should be administered via Qualtrics. A detailed Instruction Manual for CES can be found in the Letters, Templates, and Forms section of the Toolbox.
Clinical evaluations are required from a broad mix of professional colleagues with the training, experience, and exposure to the candidate’s clinical work that allows for informed commentary on clinical performance. Clinical evaluator types include health care providers who consult with the candidate, clinical administrative staff, and non-physician health care professionals.
NOTE: If internal referees or clinical trainees are solicited for evaluations via Qualtrics, they must be asked to fill out a CES as well. Include the form with those solicitation requests.
Of course, clinical evaluations are not required for candidates who are not clinically active. Instead, candidates that will not have clinical duties should be evaluated (when required) via the Professional Excellence Survey (PES), which is also administered via Qualtrics.
- All actions except for Clinical Instructor new appointments require CES results:
- 4-7 surveys for all applicable actions if the candidate is at less than 50% FTE or Affiliated
- 7 surveys for all applicable new appointments, reappointments for Clinical Associate Professors who are over ten years in rank, and all reappointments for Clinical Professors when the candidate is at 50-100% FTE
- 9-14 surveys for all other reappointments & promotions when the candidate is at 50-100% FTE
- Who to survey:
- Health care providers who consult with, or refer patients to, the candidate
- 3 for candidates at 50-100% FTE (as applicable)
- Fully qualified physician colleagues (including fully qualified physician colleagues from above categories)
- 4 to 6 for candidates at 50-100% FTE
- Physician extenders (e.g., physician assistants or nurse practitioners) who work directly with the candidate
- 1 or 2 for candidates at 50-100% FTE
- Nurse managers, clinic managers, or similar senior clinical administrators
- 1 to 3 for candidates at 50-100% FTE
NOTE: For candidates at less than 50% FTE, at least half of the required number from each of the above categories should be solicited.
Practice Policy Exemptions
The Faculty Practice Policy for clinicians, psychologists, and dentists in the School of Medicine governs the provision of clinical care by these professionals at Stanford and elsewhere, and the receipt of income for such care. In short:
- Full time clinicians (those at 100% FTE) at Stanford may not provide clinical care outside Stanford and its approved practice sites.
- For those that are not full time (less than 100% FTE but 50% and above), a practice policy exemption is required, which must be approved by the division chief, department chair, Vice Dean, and the Risk Authority.
- For Clinician Educators who are appointed at below 50% FTE, a list of other employers must be provided to the Vice Dean as part of the appointment package (usually included in the CV) and must be updated when there are changes to the list, or when they are reappointed or promoted.
- The Stanford University Medical Indemnity and Trust Insurance Company (SUMIT) provides malpractice coverage to clinicians at the School of Medicine. If a CE wishes to request a practice policy exemption, they must provide proof of malpractice coverage that is acceptable to SUMIT, or request that SUMIT provide coverage for their outside activity (e.g., pro bono clinical care overseas). The Office of Academic Affairs will contact SUMIT and obtain a form that the clinician must fill out in either case.
Offer Letters, Letters of Invitation, and Offer Letter Addenda
Every newly appointed CE receives an offer letter; this letter must be reviewed and approved by the Office of Academic Affairs and the office of Faculty Compensation before it is signed by the department chair and division chief and delivered to the candidate.
Clinician Educators (Affiliated) must receive a letter of invitation instead, as they are not Stanford employees. These must also be reviewed by the Office of Academic Affairs before being distributed with each of new appointments, promotions, and reappointments.
Offer letter addenda are required for changes to all paid appointments (for changes to FTE specifically, there is a separate template). These must be reviewed and approved by the Office of Academic Affairs and the office of Faculty Compensation before being signed by the department chair and division chief and delivered to the candidate or current CE. More specific guidance may be found at the end of this section below.
NOTE: These documents must be submitted with Track Changes engaged for all edits to the OAA template so that it is easily reviewable by OAA and Faculty Compensation.
- Part of every new appointment package is a draft offer letter or letter of invitation in Word document format (separate attachment from the appointment file).
- In most cases, CE’s receive a standard offer letter. Please note the following, additional requirements for the ‘Other information’ section of the offer letter:
- Annual Review: Clinical Assistant Professors and Clinical Associate Professors with an FTE of fifty percent or more are required to receive an annual review of their performance; this meeting should be scheduled with the CE’s Department Chair or designate. If the Department uses a designate, this individual must be at the level of Associate or Professor.
- Mentoring: Clinical Assistant Professors with an FTE of fifty percent or more are also required to be assigned a mentor. Department Chairs and / or Division Chiefs should not be mentors, nor should this mentor be the same individual performing the CE’s annual review. Additionally, a mentor should generally not be at the Assistant-level rank, which requires an exception request submitted to OAA.
- When a CE’s FTE (full time effort) or FTE distribution changes (that is, when the amount of time that they work or the way that time is distributed among clinical, teaching, and other duties changes), an FTE change addendum must be submitted (in addition to the relevant action materials via FASA).
- When an administrative role is being added to a CE’s appointment (or an existing role is being changed), an addendum for an administrative role must be submitted via Smartsheet.
- When other components of a CE’s appointment change (e.g., duties allocation or description, term dates, division assignment), the changes other than FTE addendum must be submitted accordingly.
