Your First 90 Days as New Medical Faculty: Education Tasks to Prioritize

The biggest mistake new medical faculty make is saying “yes” to everything and learning teaching on nights and weekends. That’s backwards.

Your first 90 days should be a ruthless triage of educational tasks—what to front‑load, what to defer, and what to quietly ignore.

Below is a week‑by‑week, then month‑by‑month guide focused specifically on education. Not your research. Not your RVUs. Just the teaching side of your new job and what you should actually be doing, in order.

---

Week 1–2: Stop the Bleeding and Map the Terrain

At this point you should not be “improving” anything. You should be figuring out what already exists so you don’t break it.

Days 1–3: Clarify Your Teaching Load (In Writing)

You need a clean, simple answer to: What am I actually responsible for teaching this year?

Get this nailed down early. Ideally by day 3.

Ask (and write down the answers):

• Which courses/rotations am I assigned to?
• What percent of my FTE is officially “teaching”?
• Do I have required lectures, small groups, bedside teaching, simulations, OSCEs?
• Are there course director / clerkship leadership roles attached?
• What evaluation responsibilities do I have (milestones, EPA ratings, narrative assessments)?

Push for specifics. “You’ll help with the clerkship” is vague; “You’ll lead four small groups per month and give two 60‑minute lectures per block” is actionable.

Topic	Exact Question to Ask
Teaching Time	What % FTE is protected for teaching?
Settings	Which courses/rotations am I formally assigned to?
Deliverables	How many lectures, small groups, or sessions per block?
Evaluations	Which learners do I evaluate, and in what system?
Leadership	Any director, co-director, or committee roles expected this year?

Days 2–5: Meet the Key Education People

You don’t have to meet everyone. Just the people who can tank your life if you ignore them.

At this point you should schedule short, targeted meetings with:

• Course/clerkship directors you’ll work under
• Program director (if GME heavy role)
• Vice Chair / Associate Dean for Education
• Department admin who runs schedules and evaluations

In these meetings, you should:

• Ask for current syllabi, schedules, and objectives
• Clarify grading and evaluation timelines
• Ask how communication with learners usually happens (LMS, email, announcements)
• Find out who actually fixes problems (LMS access, room scheduling, AV)

Do not promise new curricula yet. Your only goal now is intel.

Key Education Relationships in First 2 Weeks

Step	Description
Step 1	You - New Faculty
Step 2	Course Directors
Step 3	Program Director
Step 4	Education Leadership
Step 5	Department Admin
Step 6	Existing Syllabi
Step 7	Schedules and Rooms
Step 8	Promotion and Expectations

Days 3–10: Get Your Systems Access and Basic Training

At this point you should make the tech work for you before you start building anything.

You need:

• Access to the LMS (Canvas, Blackboard, Moodle, whatever)
• Access to the evaluation system (MedHub, New Innovations, E*Value, homegrown horror)
• Your institutional slide template and branding rules
• Room booking / AV contacts
• Simulation center contacts (if relevant)

Book or request:

• A 15–30 minute LMS walk‑through with someone who actually uses it for teaching
• A quick demo of the evaluation system from your program or clerkship coordinator
• A test run of classroom tech where you’ll most often teach (log in, run slides, try the mic)

Do this now. Not the night before your first lecture.

---

Weeks 3–4: Stabilize Your First Teaching Deliverables

At this point you should know your first three concrete teaching events. Name them. Date, time, audience, length.

Your job in weeks 3–4 is to make those inevitable events safe and functional, not world‑class.

Week 3: Lock Down Your First Three Sessions

List out explicitly:

1. First lecture or large‑group session
2. First small group / case‑based session
3. First clinical teaching block (ward month, clinic afternoon, etc.)

For each one, answer:

• Who are the learners (MS2? PGY‑1? Mixed level?)
• What are the published objectives, if any?
• How will they evaluate you, if at all?
• What content existed last year, and can you reuse it?

If there’s an existing slide deck:

• Read it with a red pen (digital or literal) and mark:
  • What’s clearly outdated
  • What’s obviously overstuffed
  • What learners always miss or complain about (ask the director)

Your first pass improvement goal: cut 20–30% of the “nice‑to‑have” slides and sharpen the must‑know content.

How to Trim an Inherited Lecture

Category	Value
Core Must-Know	50
Outdated/Low-Yield	20
Too Detailed	15
Redundant	15

Week 4: Build Minimal‑Viable, Learner‑Centered Sessions

Now you build, but you keep it lean.

For your first lecture:

• Start with 3–5 clear objectives, tied to the course objectives
• Plan no more than 1–2 key concepts per 15 minutes
• Insert at least:
  • One case vignette
  • One short polling question (even if it’s just a show of hands)
  • One pause for “turn to the person next to you and…” type discussion

For your first small group:

• Get or create:
  • A 1‑page session plan (timing, questions, transitions)
  • Clear expected preparation for learners (pre‑reading, videos)
• Decide in advance:
  • What you’ll do if nobody prepared
  • How you’ll handle a dominant talker
  • How you’ll draw out a quiet learner

For your first clinical block:

• Draft a one‑page orientation sheet you can hand or email to learners:
  • Start/end times
  • Expectations (presentations, notes, reading)
  • How feedback will be given (and when)

---

Month 1 Summary: What Must Be Done by Day 30

By the end of the first month, the educational side of your job should have:

• Clear written list of teaching responsibilities and % FTE
• Access to all relevant systems (LMS, evaluations, rooms)
• Contact list of 3–4 go‑to education people
• Prepared and tested materials for your first three teaching events
• A repeatable orientation script for clinical learners

If you do not have these by day 30, this is where you push. Politely. But firmly.

---

Month 2 (Days 31–60): Improve the Experience, Protect Your Time

At this point you should be teaching in real time and seeing your own weak spots. Good. Now you start tightening.

Weeks 5–6: Tighten Feedback and Evaluation Habits

New faculty routinely underestimate how much time evaluation will eat. Fix that early.

At this point you should:

• Decide when you’ll do learner evaluations:
  • End of each clinic day?
  • Friday afternoons?
  • End of a rotation block?
• Block that time on your calendar as a recurring appointment

Adopt a simple system:

• During the week:
  • Keep a running note on each learner (3 bullets: strength, growth area, example)
• During your evaluation block:
  • Open the system
  • Transfer those bullets into the formal evaluation
  • Add 1–2 solid narrative sentences

To make your feedback actually useful, use a simple formula:

• “You did X, which shows strength in Y. Next time, try Z so that you can improve Q.”

Example:
“You consistently stepped up to present new admissions, which shows strength in initiative. Next time, try organizing your assessment into problem‑based subheadings so your plan is easier to follow for the team.”

Weeks 5–6: Establish a Teaching Rhythm on the Wards/Clinic

At this point you should standardize how you teach clinically so you’re not reinventing every day.

Pick a basic framework and stick to it:

On inpatient:

• Morning: 5–10 minute micro‑teach on a case‑based topic
• During rounds:
  • 1–2 teaching moments per patient, max
  • Ask learners to teach back key points
• End of day: 5‑minute debrief + one piece of actionable feedback per learner

In clinic:

• First two patients: focus on direct observation
• Mid‑session: 5‑minute whiteboard teaching based on a seen case
• End: brief feedback huddle

You’re not trying to be fancy. You’re building predictable patterns your learners and you can rely on.

Weeks 7–8: Clean Up and Standardize Your Materials

By now, you’ve probably given at least one session. Maybe it went fine. Maybe it was chaos.

At this point you should iterate:

For each lecture or small group you’ve already done:

• Spend 20–30 minutes right after (or that evening) to:
  • Delete or mark dead weight slides/questions that didn’t work
  • Add a slide with “common questions from this session”
  • Shorten any segment that consistently ran long

Then create a simple session template you’ll reuse:

• Title slide with your contact info
• Objectives slide
• 1–2 content blocks
• Case(s) or question(s)
• Summary slide with 3 key takeaways
• “What to read next” slide (1–3 resources max)

This upfront standardization saves you many hours later when your schedule explodes.

---

Month 3 (Days 61–90): Build Credibility and Start Saying “No”

At this point you should be functional as a teacher. Next you want to be strategic.

Month 3 is when people really start approaching you for “just a quick session” or “could you help with this curriculum committee?” If you say yes to everything now, you’ll regret it for years.

Days 61–70: Get Your First Pieces of Teaching Feedback

You need honest data before you start optimizing.

At this point you should:

• Pull formal learner evaluations from the first month or two (if available)
• Ask one trusted person (course director, senior faculty) to:
  • Sit in on one lecture or small group
  • Give specific feedback on structure, clarity, and engagement
• Ask 2–3 learners you trust for one thing that helped, one thing to change

Do not overreact to a single bad comment. Look for patterns:

• Are you consistently “too fast”?
• Slides too dense?
• Not enough cases?
• Feedback too vague?

Pick one teaching behavior to deliberately improve over the next 4–6 weeks. Not ten. One.

Common Themes in Early Teaching Evaluations

Category	Value
Too Fast	35
Too Dense Slides	30
Not Interactive	25
Unclear Expectations	20
Great Cases	40

Days 71–80: Protect Your Educational Time and Set Boundaries

This is where new faculty either stabilize or drown.

At this point you should:

• Look at your calendar for the next 3–6 months
• Identify:
  • Recurring teaching commitments
  • Peak clinical weeks
  • Windows for preparation time

Then:

• Block prep time on your calendar before every major teaching event
  • For a 60‑minute new lecture, block at least 2–3 hours ahead of time
  • For a small group, at least 1–2 hours the week before

When someone asks you to take on a new educational task, your default response for now should be:

• “Let me check my teaching and clinical schedule and get back to you.”

And when you do get back:

• Say yes to:
  • Opportunities clearly aligned with your interests (e.g., simulation, assessment, curriculum design)
  • Roles with protected time or explicit credit (FTE, title, promotion criteria)
• Say no (or “not this year”) to:
  • Standing roles with vague expectations
  • Projects where you’re the worker bee with no authorship or recognition

Days 75–85: Connect with the Education Community Deliberately

By this point you should not just be a random person who gives a couple lectures. You should be on the radar of the people who build and protect educational careers.

Concrete steps:

• Attend at least one:
  • Department or institutional education grand rounds
  • Curriculum committee or clerkship meeting (if you have a role there)
• Introduce yourself to:
  • Someone doing medical education scholarship in your area
  • A recognized master teacher in your department

Ask exactly two targeted questions:

1. “If you were me, new faculty focused on teaching, what would you prioritize this year?”
2. “What education committees or projects are actually worth my time here?”

Write down their answers. These folks have already seen which efforts translate into promotion, respect, and sanity at your institution.

---

Days 85–90: Reset, Plan, and Document

You don’t want to look up in year three and realize you’ve done a ton of education work with nothing documented.

At this point you should spend half a day on a 90‑day reset.

1. Inventory your teaching so far:
   • Lectures (titles, dates, audiences, hours)
   • Small groups
   • Simulation/OSCE roles
   • Clinical teaching (approximate weeks, learners)
2. Start a basic educator portfolio file (Word, OneNote, Notion, whatever):
   • List teaching activities
   • Drop in representative slides, session plans, evaluation summaries
3. Write a one‑page teaching philosophy draft:
   • How you like to teach
   • How you give feedback
   • How you handle struggling learners

This doesn’t have to be perfect. But in 2–3 years, when you’re going up for promotion or an education role, you’ll be extremely glad you started this now.

First 90 Days Education Timeline

Period	Event
Month 1 - Week 1-2	Define roles, meet key people, get system access
Month 1 - Week 3-4	Prepare first sessions, standardize basic materials
Month 2 - Week 5-6	Build feedback habits, stabilize clinical teaching rhythm
Month 2 - Week 7-8	Iterate on sessions, create templates
Month 3 - Week 9-10	Gather evaluations, protect teaching time
Month 3 - Week 11-12	Network in education, build educator portfolio

---

Quick Priority Map: What Matters Most in the First 90 Days

Time Frame	Top Education Priority	What You Actually Do
Days 1–14	Define role & access	Clarify load, meet directors, get LMS/eval access
Days 15–30	Stabilize early teaching	Prepare first 3 sessions, standardize basic formats
Days 31–60	Improve delivery & feedback	Build clinical teaching rhythm, set evaluation habits
Days 61–90	Protect time & build trajectory	Say strategic yes/no, seek feedback, start portfolio

---

Bottom Line: Your First 90 Days as Medical Faculty

Keep three things straight:

1. Clarity beats enthusiasm. Get your teaching role, expectations, and systems crystal clear before you start “innovating.”
2. Standardization saves you. Simple templates and routines for lectures, small groups, and clinical teaching will protect your time and sanity.
3. Think like future you. Document your teaching, seek specific feedback, and say yes only where it builds the educator you actually want to become.