Achieving Gender Equity in Physician Compensation and Career Advancement: A Position Paper of the American College of Physicians.

Women comprise more than one third of the active physician workforce, an estimated 46% of all physicians-in-training, and more than half of all medical students in the United States. Although progress has been made toward gender diversity in the physician workforce, disparities in compensation exist and inequities have contributed to a disproportionately low number of female physicians achieving academic advancement and serving in leadership positions. Women in medicine face other challenges, including a lack of mentors, discrimination, gender bias, cultural environment of the workplace, imposter syndrome, and the need for better work-life integration. In this position paper, the American College of Physicians summarizes the unique challenges female physicians face over the course of their careers and provides recommendations to improve gender equity and ensure that the full potential of female physicians is realized.

Work Related Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in Medicine Residents.

OBJECTIVE: This study sought to screen for the burden of work-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms in internal medicine residents. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey of internal medicine residents from three academic institutions was conducted using the PCL-5 screening tool. RESULTS: Off all residents surveyed, 5.2% screened positive for PTSD symptoms (N = 194). 86.1% of all trainees identified stressors during training. Positive PTSD screens were significantly higher in PGY3 residents (X2 = 15.24, p = 0.0005). Of all PGY3 residents, 9.8% (N = 4) and 14.6% (N = 6) of residents screened positive for PTSD symptoms based on absolute and cluster score criteria, respectively. Verbal/physical assault by patients/families/colleagues were triggers for the most cases of positive screens. CONCLUSIONS: Self-reported stressors are highly prevalent in internal medicine trainees. Verbal/physical assault by patients and families appear to be the triggering event for most positive screens. These observations will help with future study designs to quantify the burden of work related PTSD in internal medicine trainee physicians so that appropriate supportive measures can be provided.

Financing U.S. Graduate Medical Education: A Policy Position Paper of the Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine and the American College of Physicians.

In this position paper, the Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine and the American College of Physicians examine the state of graduate medical education (GME) financing in the United States and recent proposals to reform GME funding. They make a series of recommendations to reform the current funding system to better align GME with the needs of the nation's health care workforce. These recommendations include using Medicare GME funds to meet policy goals and to ensure an adequate supply of physicians, a proper specialty mix, and appropriate training sites; spreading the costs of financing GME across the health care system; evaluating the true cost of training a resident and establishing a single per-resident amount; increasing transparency and innovation; and ensuring that primary care residents receive training in well-functioning ambulatory settings that are financially supported for their training roles.