Master Fellow Candidate (MFC) Advisors

MFC Advisors will help the candidate to work through their Master Fellow program. MFC Advisors should be experts in their field. Any of the WMS faculty may serve as a Fellow Advisor. A list of current and preceding faculty can be given for help in identification of an MFC Advisor. This said however, MFC Advisors from outside the WMS can be utilized if they have the experience in both the sub-discipline and in wilderness medicine to be considered equivalent to WMS faculty. Alternately, proposed or potential MFC Advisors may submit a proposal to become WMS faculty .  All advisors must have their resumé/CV submitted to the Academy and must be approved and registered as a MFC Advisor by the Academy.

The MFC Advisor will be responsible for:

• providing the MFC direction on literature to review
• assisting the Candidate in his/her scholarly activity (in a review capacity)
• The Advisor will meet with the Candidate quarterly (phone or teleconference is acceptable for this requirement); a log of these meeetings is to be submitted with the completed application
• The Advisor will be asked to promote (or not to promote) the candidate at the end of the 5-year term limit. (However, the faculty advisor and the Candidate will, in most scenarios, reach a point where after discussion with the Candidate, the faculty advisors will recommend the Candidate for promotion.)

MFC Advisor Guidelines

The following are some of the expectations for an MFC Advisor:

1. If/when there are any questions, contact the WMS/Academy for direction/advice. We at the WMS and Academy want to make the MFC-MFC Advisor activity as enjoyable as possible for both the Advisor and the MFC.
2. Agreeing to be a Faculty Advisor for an MFC is an educational contract between you and the Candidate. You are to act as an Advisor only—it is the Candidate who must show growth and eventual expertise in the selected area.
3. The area of concentration is chosen by the MFC and should be an area in which you have some significant familiarity. If you feel that you do not have adequate background in this area, please let the Candidate know and possibly recommend someone who may be more appropriate.
4. At the very least we require quarterly meetings between the MFC Advisor and the MFC. Most will probably meet much more often. Meetings can be over the phone.

Advice for Prospective MFC Advisors:

Your first meeting with your Candidate will probably be a “feeling out” activity for you as an advisor. You will be accessing what the Candidate’s level of comprehension in his or her chosen concentration is and what the overall goal is regarding this endeavor.

During this first meeting be sure to remind the Candidate to begin assembling his/her electronic academic portfolio. This is a crucial portion of the Candidate's evaluation process and is much easier to create as the Candidate goes along. Much is lost if it is thrown together in the final hour and that may end up hurting the Candidate.

After the initial meeting (or even during) a recommendation from you on a basic text and a literature search strategy. The Candidate will have the ability to search the Wilderness and Environmental Medicine journal (which should be recommended) but he/or she may not have the ability to search further (ie. Medline or Pubmed).  If the Candidate does not have this ability please assist them in gaining access possibly through your institution.

The literature review can take some time, but between the recommended texts and the 50 to 75 articles found in the literature search, the Fellow should begin to grasp the greater depths of his/her subject. At this time it is important to begin to probe and possibly assist the Candidate in a scholarly activity endeavor.

The scholarly activity can be any type of activity but at this level a high emphasis on publishable material is given. In addition it should be emphasized that this activity should be presented at a WMS meeting. You may assist with any research; the Candidate is encouraged to include the Advisor on any/all published manuscripts.

As an Advisor, be sure that the Candidate participates in the experiential portion of his or her education at some point. To accomplish this, be sure to remind the Candidate to contact the AWM to schedule them into a pre-conference workshop. The pre-conference workshop faculty will be asked to evaluate the Candidate and help with any educational points that need addressing. It is possible that some Candidates may need to repeat the experiential activity to truly gain mastery. If this happens, remind the Candidate that this is beneficial rather than punitive.

Once the Candidate has completed the three main portions of the program, the Faculty Advisor should meet with the Candidate, shore up any deficits and then, upon mutual agreement between the Advisor and the Candidate, submit for completion.

Submitting for completion of a Master Fellowship includes a letter from you, the Advisor, stating that in your opinion he/she is ready to achieve Master Fellow Status within our society. The Candidate will need to submit this letter within his/her academic portfolio which will be evaluated by the Academy oversight Committee. The evaluation process makes sure that all Candidates have a similar experience and assures that a Master level of activity is achieved. If there are any questions the committee will contact the Candidate and possibly you as the advisor to clear up questions regarding the Candidate.

During the entire process if there are any questions please do not hesitate to contact us.