(448) Supporting Faculty and Staff at UNE to Foster a Culture of Positivity, Value, and Support

At the University of New England’s (UNE) School of Pharmacy (SOP), we know our faculty and staff need to be successful in order to support the learning needs of our students. Much of the support for faculty and staff comes from within the School of Pharmacy. This support provides opportunities for growth and wellbeing among our faculty and staff.

At the SOP, our Dean and Department Chairs took a look at workload and ways to streamline our work to align with our available time. A collaborative effort was undertaken between leadership and faculty to examine teaching consistency and service commitments. These were realigned for greater allocation of effort in areas of maximal impact. A new tool for analyzing workload was created which allowed us to take a more granular look at the collective efforts of each faculty member and their unique contribution to the SOP mission, especially as relates to clinical time and service across many different aspects of our School, College, and University.

At various faculty development days within the SOP, the faculty and staff participated in workshops aimed at providing efficiency in our everyday work. An introduction to AI discussion was especially insightful, as well as a tutorial on how to use “Box,” a new cloud-based content management system, to help make sharing, editing, and cosigning files easier and more efficient.

At UNE the faculty and staff of the SOP have been able to collaborate to provide our student body with the best learning experiences possible.