Faculty members at the University of Kansas School of Medicine-Wichita are satisfied with the school and optimistic about its future, a recent study concluded.
The research was conducted by Wichita State University's Interdisciplinary Communication Research Institute.
Medical school administrators requested the study as a follow-up to two previous studies, which identified some areas of concern.
Those concerns included the Wichita school's image within the community, communication, access to administration and a lack of adequate support for research.
The follow-up study, conducted last fall, was intended to discover if some of those same concerns still existed. The study used a focus group, interviews with departmental chairs and a written faculty survey.
"All in all, the study shows that all faculty, full-time, part-time and volunteers, are now relatively satisfied with a number of areas that had previously been of concern," said Wichita State researchers Philip M. Gaunt and Gary W. Larson, who conducted the study. "The overall findings showed that the faculty feel more positively about things in general and appreciate measures taken in recent years to improve faculty-development opportunities and to building bridges with the community."
Dr. Joseph C. Meek, dean of the KU School of Medicine-Wichita, said, "We see this [survey] as a way to keep in touch with our faculty needs, and we recognize that our faculty is our primary contact with our students."