Negotiation Skills for Medical Educators

• DOI: 10.4300/jgme-d-14-00328.1
• Publication Date: 2015-03-02T23:41:03Z
• Authors: Kieran Walsh
• Keywords: 03 medical and health sciences; Faculty, Medical; 0302 clinical medicine; Attitude of Health Personnel; Education, Medical, Graduate; Negotiating; Interprofessional Relations; 4. Education; 0202 electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering; Humans; 02 engineering and technology; Personnel Management

Medical education is expensive.1 The expense is sometimes borne by learners and their families, sometimes by institutions, and sometimes by governments.2 Graduate medical education is no different from other forms of medical education in terms of its expense. There is the cost of curriculum development and delivery for residents, the cost of resources (such as equipment, technology, or e-learning resources), the cost of assessment (be it formative or summative), and the cost of program evaluation.3 In this article, assessment means assessing the learners, whereas evaluation means evaluating the course, curriculum, or program. Some of these costs are sunk costs; some are fixed costs. However, others are negotiable. For example, the costs of resources provided by the institution—like simulation equipment—are often negotiable. Institutional purchasers and commercial providers of such equipment can negotiate on price, amount, or a number of other variables. Commercial providers understand negotiation skills, and many of their staff will have been trained in these skills. Those responsible for the purchase, however, are less likely to have a commercial background, so they are less likely to have the skills necessary to ensure the best possible deal for their institution and learners. The purpose of this perspective is to introduce the topic of negotiation for those who are responsible for ensuring that their institution gets the best possible value for its purchases. Sometimes medical educators need to negotiate for space and/or time in the curriculum, and negotiation skills are needed in those circumstances as well.