Faculty have to model conversations no one trained them for
For faculty & clinician educators who need results they can measure.
Attendings, fellows-as-teachers, and clinician educators are expected to give difficult feedback, address professionalism concerns, and teach at the bedside — conversations they were rarely formally trained to lead and almost never get objective feedback on. ClinicalSim turns the same engine and rubric that train residents toward the skills faculty are expected to demonstrate, in a private, low-stakes setting.
What's at stake
Faculty model skills they never practiced
Giving structured feedback, handling defensiveness, and running a professionalism conversation are learned skills — but most faculty picked them up by osmosis, without deliberate practice or feedback.
Confidence is not competence
In one survey, the attendings furthest out from training reported the highest confidence in leading end-of-life conversations and the least formal preparation for them. Confidence, in this domain, is largely the absence of feedback.
No objective feedback loop
Once training ends, structured feedback on how a clinician actually communicates effectively stops. There is rarely a safe place to rehearse a hard feedback conversation before having it for real.
Professionalism conversations get avoided
Addressing a peer's lateness, disengagement, or underperformance is uncomfortable, so it's often deferred — and unaddressed concerns escalate into larger problems for the team and the program.
The numbers
the engine and dashboard that train residents, turned toward faculty
structured feedback frameworks built into the scenarios
private, on-demand practice from any device
generates objective, rubric-scored feedback
How ClinicalSim helps
Rehearse Difficult Feedback
Practice delivering corrective feedback to a learner with structure (Pendleton, SBI) and handling defensiveness — before the real conversation, not during it.
Navigate Professionalism Concerns
Work through addressing lateness, disengagement, or a colleague performing below expectations directly, without damaging the working relationship.
Sharpen Bedside Teaching
Practice teach-back from the teacher's side — calibrating to the learner's level and protecting time for questions — with feedback on how it lands.
One Platform for Learners and Teachers
Faculty-development scenarios run on the same engine, rubric, and dashboard as the trainee-facing programs, so an institution supports learners and the faculty who teach them from one system.
Faculty Development
The platform isn't only for trainees. Attendings, fellows-as-teachers, and clinician educators practice the conversations they're expected to model — giving difficult feedback, navigating professionalism concerns, and teaching at the bedside — with the same rubric-scored simulation. Because confidence in these conversations is often the absence of feedback, not evidence of skill: in one survey, the attendings furthest out from training reported the highest confidence and the least formal preparation.
Related Insights
Six of 105: Why End-of-Life Communication Training Has a Measurement Problem
A systematic review of 105 studies found only 6 with clear training objectives — none sharing the same outcomes. A pediatric intensivist and palliative care physician explains what this means for fellows learning to navigate the hardest conversations in medicine.
Why Communication Training Matters
Communication failures are the leading driver of malpractice claims, yet most clinicians receive minimal structured training. The gap between what's at stake and how we prepare is wider than most realize.
Breaking Bad News Is a Practice Problem, Not a Knowledge Problem
Residents who score well on written exams still freeze in real conversations. Only 17.6% of residents report formal training in breaking bad news, and the gap isn't knowledge, it's comfort. Communication skills improve through repetition and feedback in realistic scenarios, not lectures.