My flight was cancelled! An exploratory study on institutional professional development budgets for medical educators

Introduction Recent federal funding cuts have created pauses in admissions, hiring, and execution of research studies at academic medical centers internationally. These monetary reductions have also impacted allowances for non-essential faculty travel. As a result, faculty may now be faced with challenges in how they obtain professional development.

A cross-sectional, exploratory study was implemented to discover the impact of funding cuts on faculty travel for professional development opportunities, as well as strategies medical educators are using to mitigate the current landscape.

Findings indicate that faculty now have to use alternative methods to obtain professional development and that institutional guidance is lacking in how to do so.

Authors provide concrete action steps for faculty to take amidst this challenge to remain engaged in professional development. Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. Funding Statement This study did not receive any funding. Author Declarations I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained. Yes The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below: NYU Langone Health Institutional Review Board gave EXEMPT status ethical approval for this work. I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals. Yes I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance). Yes I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines, such as any relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material, if applicable. Yes Footnotes Funding sources and related paper presentations: N/A The work described in this paper was deemed exempt from NYU Langone’s Institutional Review Board. Conflicts of Interest and Source of Funding: The authors have no conflicts of interest in the manuscript, including financial, consultant, institutional and other relationships that might lead to bias or a conflict of interest to declare. There are no funding sources to be acknowledged. Data Availability Statement: Raw data were generated at NYU Langone Health. Derived data supporting the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author [JN] on request. Data Availability Raw data were generated at NYU Langone Health. Derived data supporting the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author [JN] on request.