Academic commentary faculty development: some thoughts about the process and content.

Faculty development, particularly that aspect of it concerned with increasing the educational and teaching skills of faculty members, is currently a major issue for medicine in general-and family medicine in particular. This article presents the author's views about what might be aspects of the guiding philosophy and content of such a program of faculty development, where it is concerned with increasing teaching skills.These views have been distilled over several years of personal growth and development, whilst working in this area as an educator within the RACGP's family medicine program, as a participant and facilitator in international workshops examining related topics, and most recently as a visiting professor within the McGill Department of Family Medicine at Jewish General Hospital, Montreal.