Introduction: Didactic lectures remain fundamental in academic medicine; however, many faculty physicians do not receive formal training in instructional delivery. In order to design a program to instill and enhance lecture skills in academic emergency medicine (EM) physicians we must first understand the gap between the current and ideal states.

Methods: In 2012 the Council of Emergency Medicine Residency Directors (CORD) Academy for Scholarship designed a novel coaching program to improve teaching skills and foster career development for medical educators based on literature review and known teaching observation programs. In order to inform the refinement of the program, we performed a needs assessment of participants. Participants’ needs and prior teaching experiences were gathered from self-reflection forms completed prior to engaging in the coaching program. Two independent reviewers qualitatively analyzed data using a thematic approach.

Results: We analyzed data from 12 self-reflection forms. Thematic saturation was reached after nine forms. Overall inter-rater agreement was 91.5%. We categorized emerging themes into three domains: participant strengths and weaknesses; prior feedback with attempts to improve; and areas of desired mentorship. Several overlapping themes and subthemes emerged including factors pertaining to the lecturer, the audience/learner, and the content/delivery.

Conclusion: This study identified several areas of need from EM educators regarding lecture skills. These results may inform faculty development efforts in this area. The authors employed a three-phase, novel, national coaching program to meet these needs.