Impact of Clinical Demands on the Educational Mission in Hospital Medicine at 17 Academic Medical Centers : A Qualitative Analysis.

BACKGROUND: Clinical growth is outpacing the growth of traditional educational opportunities at academic medical centers (AMCs). OBJECTIVE: To understand the impact of clinical growth on the educational mission for academic hospitalists. DESIGN: Qualitative study using semistructured interviews that were analyzed using a mixed inductive and deductive method at the semantic level. SETTING: Large AMCs across the United States that experienced clinical growth in the past 5 years. PARTICIPANTS: Division heads, section heads, and other hospital medicine (HM) leaders who oversaw and guided academic and clinical efforts of HM programs. MEASUREMENTS: Themes and subthemes. RESULTS: From September 2021 to January 2022, HM leaders from 17 AMCs participated in the interviews, and 3 key themes emerged. First, AMCs' disproportionate clinical growth highlighted the tension between clinical and educational missions. This included a mismatch in supply and demand for traditional teaching time, competing priorities, and clinical growth being seen as both an opportunity and a threat. Second, amid the shifting landscape of high clinical demands and evolving educational opportunities, hospitalists still strongly prefer traditional teaching. To address this mismatch, HM groups have had to alter recruitment strategies and create innovative solutions to help build academic careers. Third, participants noted a need to reimagine the role and identity of an academic hospitalist, emphasizing tailored career pathways and educational roles spanning well beyond traditional house staff teaching teams. LIMITATION: The study focused on large AMCs. CONCLUSION: Although HM groups have implemented many creative strategies to address clinical growth and keep education front and center, challenges remain, particularly heavy clinical workloads and a continued dilution of traditional teaching opportunities. PRIMARY FUNDING SOURCE: Society of Hospital Medicine Student Scholar Grant.

Peer feedback: A tool to improve PA, NP, and physician collaboration and clinical practice.

ABSTRACT: The increasing use of physician associates/assistants (PAs) and NPs on clinical teams creates an opportunity for colleagues to provide feedback that can drive growth and improvement in PA and NP clinical skills. Through a needs assessment, month-long pilot, and buy-in from our academic hospital medicine group, we initiated a peer feedback platform that sought to highlight individual faculty strengths, facilitate thoughtful and constructive feedback, and create effective collaboration among colleagues. Three months after implementation, results indicated that the platform provided important information on clinical skills and identified areas for growth and opportunities for additional training. Peer feedback can also improve working relationships among PAs, NPs, and physicians by highlighting the clinical skill sets and value of all team members.

The Development and Implementation of a Hospitalist-Directed Addiction Medicine Consultation Service to Address a Treatment Gap.

INTRODUCTION: Hospitalizations related to the consequences of substance use are rising yet most hospitalized patients with substance use disorder do not receive evidence-based addiction treatment. Opportunities to leverage the hospitalist workforce could close this treatment gap. AIM: To describe the development, implementation, and evaluation of a hospitalist-directed addiction consultation service (ACS) to provide in-hospital addiction treatment. SETTING: Six hundred fifty-bed university hospital in Aurora, Colorado. PROGRAM DESCRIPTION: Hospitalists completed buprenorphine waiver training, participated in a 13-part addiction lecture series, and completed a minimum of 40 hours of online addiction training. Hospitalists participated in shadow shifts with an addiction-trained physician. Dedicated addiction social workers developed relationships with local addiction treatment services. PROGRAM EVALUATION METRICS: Physician-related metrics included education, training, and clinical time spent in addiction practice. Patient and encounter-related metrics included a description of ACS care provision. RESULTS: Eleven hospitalists completed an average of 95 hours of addiction-related didactics. Once addiction training was complete, hospitalists spent an average of 30 days over 12 months staffing a weekday ACS. Between October 2019 and November 2020, the ACS completed 1620 consultations on 1350 unique patients. Alcohol was the most common substance (n = 1279; 79%), followed by tobacco (979; 60.4%), methamphetamines/amphetamines (n = 494; 30.5%), and opioids (n = 400; 24.7%). Naltrexone was the most frequently prescribed medication (n = 350; 21.6%), followed by acamprosate (n = 93; 5.7%), and buprenorphine (n = 77, 4.8%). Trauma was a frequent discharge diagnoses (n = 1564; 96.5%). Leaving prior to treatment completion was commonly noted (n = 120, 7.4%). The ACS completed 47 in-hospital methadone enrollments. DISCUSSION: The hospitalist-directed ACS is a promising clinical initiative that could be implemented to expand hospital-based addiction treatment. Future research is needed to understand challenges to disseminating this model into other hospital settings, and to evaluate intended and unintended effects of broad implementation.

The Impact of Hospital Capacity Strain: a Qualitative Analysis of Experience and Solutions at 13 Academic Medical Centers.

BACKGROUND: Hospital capacity strain impacts quality of care and hospital throughput and may also impact the well being of clinical staff and teams as well as their ability to do their job. Institutions have implemented a wide array of tactics to help manage hospital capacity strain with variable success. OBJECTIVE: Through qualitative interviews, our study explored interventions used to address hospital capacity strain and the perceived impact of these interventions, as well as how hospital capacity strain impacts patients, the workforce, and other institutional priorities. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: Qualitative study utilizing semi-structured interviews at 13 large urban academic medical centers across the USA from June 21, 2019, to August 22, 2019 (pre-COVID-19). Interviews were recorded, professionally transcribed verbatim, coded, and then analyzed using a mixed inductive and deductive method at the semantic level. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Themes and subthemes of semi-structured interviews were identified. RESULTS: Twenty-nine hospitalist leaders and hospital leaders were interviewed. Across the 13 sites, a multitude of provider, care team, and institutional tactics were implemented with perceived variable success. While there was some agreement between hospitalist leaders and hospital leaders, there was also some disagreement about the perceived successes of the various tactics deployed. We found three main themes: (1) hospital capacity strain is complex and difficult to predict, (2) the interventions that were perceived to have worked the best when facing strain were to ensure appropriate resources; however, less costly solutions were often deployed and this may lead to unanticipated negative consequences, and (3) hospital capacity strain and the tactics deployed may negatively impact the workforce and can lead to conflict. CONCLUSIONS: While institutions have employed many different tactics to manage hospital capacity strain and see this as a priority, tactics seen as having the highest yield are often not the first employed.

The Experience of Women in Hospital Medicine Leadership: a Qualitative Study.

BACKGROUND: Since 2017, women have made up over 50% of medical school matriculants; however, only 16% of department chairs are women-a number that has remained stagnant and demonstrates the underrepresentation of women in leadership positions in medicine. OBJECTIVE: To better understand the challenges women face in leadership positions and to inform how best to advance women leaders in Hospital Medicine. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: Using hermeneutical phenomenological methods, we performed semi-structured qualitative interviews of ten female division heads from hospital medicine groups in the USA, transcribed verbatim, and coded for thematic saturation using Atlas.ti software. MEASUREMENTS: Qualitative themes and subthemes. KEY RESULTS: Ten women hospitalist leaders were interviewed from September through November 2019. Participants identified four key challenges in their leadership journeys: lack of support to pursue leadership training, bullying, a sense of sacrifice in order to achieve balance, and the need for internal and external validation. Participants also suggested key interventions in order to support women leaders in the future: recommending a platform to share experiences, combat bullying, advocate for themselves, and bolster each other in sponsorship and mentorship roles. Finally, participants identified how they have unique strengths as women in leadership, and are transforming the culture of medicine with a focus on diversity and flexibility. CONCLUSION: Women in leadership positions face unique challenges, but also have a unique perspective as to how to support the next generation of leaders.

COVID-19's impact on faculty and staff at a School of Medicine in the US: what is the blueprint for the future?

BACKGROUND: The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused unprecedented challenges within medical centers, revealing inequities embedded in the medical community and exposing fragile social support systems. While faculty and staff faced extraordinary demands in workplace duties, personal responsibilities also increased. The goal of this study was to understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on personal and professional activities of faculty and staff in order to illuminate current challenges and explore solutions. METHODS: Qualitative, semi-structured group interviews involved faculty and staff at four affiliate sites within the Department of Medicine at the University of Colorado, School of Medicine. Focus groups addressed the impact of COVID-19 on (1) Changes to roles and responsibilities at work and at home, (2) Resources utilized to manage these changes and, (3) Potential strategies for how the Department could assist faculty and staff. Thematic analysis was conducted using an inductive method at the semantic level to form themes and subthemes. RESULTS: Qualitative analysis of focus group transcripts revealed themes of: (1) Challenges and disparities experienced during the pandemic, (2) Disproportionate impact on women personally and professionally, (3) Institutional factors that contributed to wellness and burnout, and (4) Solutions and strategies to support faculty and staff. Within each of these themes were multiple subthemes including increased professional and personal demands, concern for personal safety, a sense of internal guilt, financial uncertainty, missed professional opportunities, and a negative impact on mentoring. Solutions were offered and included an emphasis on addressing preexisting inequities, the importance of community, and workplace flexibility. CONCLUSIONS: The COVID-19 pandemic created burdens for already challenged faculty and staff in both their personal and professional lives. Swift action and advocacy by academic institutions is needed to support the lives and careers of our colleagues now and in the future.

Loss-of-Function Mutations in FRRS1L Lead to an Epileptic-Dyskinetic Encephalopathy.

Glutamatergic neurotransmission governs excitatory signaling in the mammalian brain, and abnormalities of glutamate signaling have been shown to contribute to both epilepsy and hyperkinetic movement disorders. The etiology of many severe childhood movement disorders and epilepsies remains uncharacterized. We describe a neurological disorder with epilepsy and prominent choreoathetosis caused by biallelic pathogenic variants in FRRS1L, which encodes an AMPA receptor outer-core protein. Loss of FRRS1L function attenuates AMPA-mediated currents, implicating chronic abnormalities of glutamatergic neurotransmission in this monogenic neurological disease of childhood.

The development and pilot of a novel mobile application to assess clinician perception of workload and work environment.

BACKGROUND: Traditional measures of workload such as wRVUs may not be adequate to understand the impact of workload on key outcomes. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to develop a mobile application to assess, in near real time, clinicians' perception of workload and work environment. DESIGNS, SETTINGS AND PARTICIPANTS: We developed the GrittyWork™ application (GW App) using the Chokshi and Mann process model for user-centered digital development. Study occured at a single academic medical center with hospitalist clinicians. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES AND MEASURES: Measures included the System Usability Scale (SUS), use measures from GW App, electronic health record (EHR) event log data and note counts, and qualitative interviews. RESULTS: From October 28, 2022 to November 3, 2022, six hospitalist clinicians provided feedback on the early prototype of the GW App, and from February 28, 2023 to June 8, 2023, 30 hospitalist clinicians participated in the pilot while on clinical service. All 30 clinicians (100%) participated in the pilot submitting data for a total of 122 shifts. Participants reported working 10 ± 1 h per day (mean ± SD) and were responsible for an average of 11 ± 3 patients per day. The postpilot evaluation of the GW App showed a SUS score of 86 ± 11 and a participant preference toward mobile application-based surveys (73% of participants). Regarding workload measures, EHR event log data and notes data correlated with physician-reported workloads. Applying user-centered design techniques, we successfully developed a mobile application with high usability. These data can be paired with EHR event log data and outcomes to provide insights into the impact of workloads and work environments on outcomes.

A patient follow-up intervention to improve medical decision making at an internal medicine residency program.

OBJECTIVES: Practice-based learning and improvement (PBLI) is an ACGME (Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education) core competency. Learning and reflecting on patients through follow-up is one method to help achieve this competency. We therefore designed a study evaluating a structured patient follow-up intervention for senior internal medicine (IM) residents at the University of Colorado Hospital (UCH). METHODS: Trainees completed structured reflections after performing chart review of prior patients during protected educational time. Two-month follow-up surveys evaluated the exercise's potential influence on clinical and reflective practices. RESULTS: Forty out of 108 (37 %) eligible residents participated in the exercise. Despite 62.5 % of participants lacking specific questions about patient outcomes before chart review, 81.2 % found the exercise at least moderately helpful. 48.4 % of participants believed that the review would change their practice, and 60.9 % felt it reinforced their existing clinical practices. In our qualitative data, residents learned lessons related to challenging clinical decisions, improving transitions of care, the significance of early goals of care conversations, and diagnostic errors/strategies. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that IM residents found a structured patient follow-up intervention educational, even when they lacked specific patient outcomes questions. Our results underscore the importance of structured self-reflection in the continuous learning process of trainees and suggest the benefit of dedicated educational time for this process.

The Impact of Completing X-Waiver Training and Clinical Addiction Exposure on Internal Medicine Residents Treating Patients With Opioid Use Disorder.

BACKGROUND: Treating opioid use disorder (OUD) with buprenorphine or methadone significantly reduces overdose and all-cause mortality. Prior studies demonstrate that clinicians and residents reported a lack of preparedness to diagnose or treat OUD. Little is known about how clinical exposure or buprenorphine X-waiver training impacts OUD care delivery by resident physicians. OBJECTIVE: Distinguish the effects of X-waiver training and clinical exposure with OUD on resident's knowledge, attitudes, feelings of preparedness, and practices related to OUD treatment provision. METHODS: From August 2021 to April 2022, we distributed a cross-sectional survey to internal medicine residents at a large academic training program. We analyzed associations between self-reported clinical exposure and X-waiver training across 4 domains: knowledge about best practices for OUD treatment, attitudes about patients with OUD, preparedness to treat OUD, and clinical experience with OUD. RESULTS: Of the 188 residents surveyed, 91 responded (48%). A majority of respondents had not completed X-waiver training (60%, n = 55) while many had provided clinical care to patients with OUD (65%, n = 59). Most residents had favorable attitudes about OUD treatment (97%). Both residents with clinical exposure to treating OUD and X-waiver training, and residents with clinical exposure without X-waiver training, felt more prepared to treat OUD (P < .0008) compared to residents with neither clinical exposure or X-waiver training or only X-waiver training. CONCLUSIONS: Residents with clinical exposure to treating OUD are more prepared to treat patients with OUD than those without clinical exposure. Greater efforts to incorporate clinical exposure to the treatment of OUD and education in internal medicine residency programs is imperative to address the opioid epidemic.

Evaluation of a Guided Nature and Forest Therapy Walk for Internal Medical Residents - A Brief Report.

Background: Medical residents commonly face compassion fatigue, burnout, anxiety, and depression. Studies of nature-based interventions show improved mental and physical health; few focus on healthcare providers. Objective: To explore potential benefits of forest bathing for medical residents' wellbeing. Methods: Using the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy's framework, we piloted a forest bathing intervention among medical residents with pre/post-participation surveys assessing perceptions of mindfulness and psychological wellbeing. Responses were analyzed using a Fisher's exact test and Student's t-test for independent samples. Results: Fourteen of fifteen participants completed both surveys. We observed significantly improved mindfulness scores and expressions of feeling calm, vital, or creative, as well as a decreased sense of anxiety and depression. Nonsignificant trends towards decreased burnout and irritability were seen. Conclusion: This quality improvement pilot demonstrates trends that forest bathing can improve medical residents' psychological wellbeing and mindfulness. Further exploration of this intervention for healthcare providers is warranted.

Prevalence of homelessness among hospitalized patients: A point-in-time survey.

Although homelessness is associated with increased acute healthcare utilization and poorer health outcomes, the prevalence of homelessness and housing insecurity in hospitalized patients is poorly characterized. We conducted an in-person survey to determine the prevalence of housing insecurity and homelessness among hospitalized patients at two hospitals in metropolitan Denver in conjunction with the Housing and Urban Development point-in-time count on January 24, 2022. Of the 271 surveyed patients, 79 (29.2%) reported experiencing either housing insecurity (17.3%) or homelessness (11.8%). Of those experiencing housing insecurity or homelessness, 69.6% reported chronic health conditions, 55.7% reported multiple hospitalizations in the preceding year, 38% reported mental health concerns and 39.2% reported substance use. The prevalence of homelessness among a hospitalized patient population was over 20-fold higher than community prevalence estimates. Housing insecurity also impacted a substantial proportion of hospitalized patients and was associated with high rates of co-morbid conditions.

Salient Measures of Hospitalist Workload.

Importance: The ideal hospitalist workload and optimal way to measure it are not well understood. Objective: To obtain expert consensus on the salient measures of hospitalist workload. Design, Setting, and Participants: This qualitative study used a 3-round Delphi technique between April 5 and July 13, 2022, involving national experts within and external to the field. Experts included hospitalist clinicians, leaders, and administrators, as well as researchers with expertise in human factors engineering and cognitive load theory. Main Outcomes and Measures: Three rounds of surveys were conducted, during which participants provided input on the salient measures of hospitalist workload across various domains. In the first round, free-text data collected from the surveys were analyzed using a directed qualitative content approach. In the second and third rounds, participants rated each measure's relevance on a Likert scale, and consensus was evaluated using the IQR. Percentage agreement was also calculated. Results: Seventeen individuals from 14 organizations, encompassing clinicians, leaders, administrators, and researchers, participated in 3 rounds of surveys. In round 1, participants provided 135 unique qualitative comments across 10 domains, with 192 unique measures identified. Of the 192 measures presented in the second round, 6 (3%) were considered highly relevant, and 25 (13%) were considered moderately relevant. In round 3, 161 measures not meeting consensus were evaluated, with 25 (16%) considered highly relevant and 95 (59%) considered moderately relevant. Examples of measures considered highly relevant included a patient complexity score and outcome measures such as savings from hospital days avoided and clinician turnover. Conclusions and Relevance: In this qualitative study measuring hospitalist workload, multiple measures, including those quantifying work demands and the association of those demands with outcomes, were considered relevant for measuring and understanding workloads. The findings suggest that relying on traditional measures, such as productivity-related measures and financial measures, may offer an incomplete understanding of workloads and their association with key outcomes. By embracing a broader range of measures, organizations may be able to better capture the complexity and nuances of hospitalist work demands and their outcomes on clinicians, patients, and organizations.

Discharge in the a.m.: A randomized controlled trial of physician rounding styles to improve hospital throughput and length of stay.

BACKGROUND: To relieve hospital capacity strain, hospitals often encourage clinicians to prioritize early morning discharges which may have unintended consequences. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to test the effects of hospitalist physicians prioritizing discharging patients first compared to usual rounding style. DESIGN, SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: Prospective, multi-center randomized controlled trial. Three large academic hospitals. Participants were Hospital Medicine attending-level physicians and patients the physicians cared for during the study who were at least 18 years of age, admitted to a Medicine service, and assigned by standard practice to a hospitalist team. INTERVENTION: Physicians were randomized to: (1) prioritizing discharging patients first as care allowed or (2) usual practice. MAIN OUTCOME AND MEASURES: Main outcome measure was discharge order time. Secondary outcomes were actual discharge time, length of stay (LOS), and order times for procedures, consults, and imaging. RESULTS: From February 9, 2021, to July 31, 2021, 4437 patients were discharged by 59 physicians randomized to prioritize discharging patients first or round per usual practice. In primary adjusted analyses (intention-to-treat), findings showed no significant difference for discharge order time (13:03 ± 2 h:31 min vs. 13:11 ± 2 h:33 min, p = .11) or discharge time (15:22 ± 2 h:50 min vs. 15:21 ± 2 h:50 min, p = .45), for physicians randomized to prioritize discharging patients first compared to physicians using usual rounding style, respectively, and there was no significant change in LOS or on order times of other physician orders. CONCLUSIONS: Prioritizing discharging patients first did not result in significantly earlier discharges or reduced LOS.

Hospitalization and Housing: A Qualitative Study Exploring the Perspectives of Hospitalized Patients Experiencing Housing Insecurity.

Although housing insecurity has clear negative impacts on health, little is known about how it impacts patients' experience of hospitalization. In this qualitative study, we interviewed 22 hospitalized patients experiencing housing insecurity. The following three major themes emerged: 1) adverse social and environmental factors directly contribute to hospitalization, 2) lack of tailored care during hospitalization leaves patients unprepared for discharge, and 3) patients have difficulty recuperating after a hospital stay, leading to the risk of rehospitalization. Within these themes, participants described the roles of extreme physical and psychological hardship, chaotic interpersonal relationships, substance use, and stigma affecting participants' experiences before, during, and following hospitalization. Our results, based directly on the patient experience, suggest a need for hospital systems to invest in universal in-hospital screening for housing insecurity, incorporation of trauma-informed care, and robust partnerships with community organizations. Future research should explore the feasibility and impact of these interventions.

Practical Applications of Rapid Qualitative Analysis for Operations, Quality Improvement, and Research in Dynamically Changing Hospital Environments.

BACKGROUND: Health care systems are in a constant state of change. As such, methods to quickly acquire and analyze data are essential to effectively evaluate current processes and improvement projects. Rapid qualitative analysis offers an expeditious approach to evaluate complex, dynamic, and time-sensitive issues. METHODS: We used rapid data acquisition and qualitative methods to assess six real-world problems the hospitalist field faced during the COVID-19 pandemic. We iteratively modified and applied a six-step framework for conducting rapid qualitative analysis, including determining if rapid methods are appropriate, creating a team, selecting a data collection approach, data analysis, and synthesis and dissemination. Virtual platforms were used for focus groups and interviews; templated summaries and matrix analyses were then applied to allow for rapid qualitative analyses. RESULTS: We conducted six projects using rapid data acquisition and rapid qualitative analysis from December 4, 2020, to January 14, 2022, each of which included 23 to 33 participants. One project involved participants from a single institution; the remainder included participants from 15 to 24 institutions. These projects led to the refinement of an adapted rapid qualitative method for evaluation of hospitalist-driven operational, research, and quality improvement efforts. We describe how we used these methods and disseminated our results. We also discuss situations for which rapid qualitative methods are well-suited and strengths and weaknesses of the methods. CONCLUSION: Rapid qualitative methods paired with rapid data acquisition can be employed for prompt turnaround assessments of quality, operational, and research projects in complex health care environments. Although rapid qualitative analysis is not meant to replace more traditional qualitative methods, it may be appropriate in certain situations. Application of a framework to guide projects using a rapid qualitative approach can help provide structure to the analysis and instill confidence in the findings.

The impact of surge adaptations on hospitalist care teams during the COVID-19 pandemic utilizing a rapid qualitative analysis approach.

BACKGROUND: Hospital systems have rapidly adapted to manage the influx of patients with COVID-19 and hospitalists, specialists in inpatient care, have been at the forefront of this response, rapidly adapting to serve the ever-changing needs of the community and hospital system. Institutional leaders, including clinical care team members and administrators, deployed many different strategies (i.e. adaptations) to manage the influx of patients. While many different strategies were utilized in hospitals across the United States, it is unclear how frontline care teams experienced these strategies and multifaceted changes. As these surge adaptations likely directly impact clinical care teams, we aimed to understand the perceptions and impact of these clinical care and staffing adaptations on hospitalists and care team members in order to optimize future surge plans. METHODS: Qualitative, semi-structured interviews and focus groups with hospitalist physicians, advanced practice providers (APPs), and hospital nursing and care management staff at a quaternary academic medical center. Interviews focused on the impact of COVID-19 surge practices on the following areas: (1) the experience of clinical care teams with the adaptations used to manage the surge (2) the perception and experience with the communication strategies utilized (3) the personal experience with the adaptations (i.e. how they impacted the individual) and (4) if participants had recommendations on strategies for future surges. We utilized rapid qualitative analysis methods to explore themes and subthemes. RESULTS: We conducted five focus groups and 21 interviews. Three themes emerged from the work including (1) dynamic clinical experience with a lot of uncertainty, (2) the importance of visible leadership with a focus on sense-making, and (3) the significant emotional toll on care team members. Subthemes included sufficient workforce, role delineation and training, information sharing, the unique dichotomy between the need for flexibility and the need for structure, the importance of communication, and the emotional toll not only on the provider but their families. Several recommendations came from this work. CONCLUSIONS: COVID-19 surge practices have had direct impact on hospitalists and care team members. Several tactics were identified to help mitigate the many negative effects of COVID-19 on frontline hospitalist providers and care teams.

Inpatient clinician workload: a scoping review protocol to understand the definition, measurement and impact of non-procedural clinician workloads.

INTRODUCTION: Clinicians that care for hospitalised patients face unprecedented work conditions with exposure to highly infectious disease, exceedingly high patient numbers, and unpredictable work demands, all of which have resulted in increases in stress and burnout. Preliminary studies suggest that increasing workloads negatively affect inpatient clinician well-being and may negatively affect job performance; yet high workloads may be prioritised secondary to financial drivers or from workforce shortages. Despite this, the correlation between workload and these negative outcomes has not been fully quantified. Additionally, there are no clear measures for inpatient clinician workload and no standards to define ideal workloads. Using the protocol described here, we will perform a scoping review of the literature to generate a comprehensive understanding of how clinician workload of medical patients is currently defined, measured in clinical settings and its impact on the workforce, patients and institutional outcomes. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: We will follow the methodology outlined by Joanna Briggs Institute and Arksey and O'Malley to conduct a comprehensive search of major electronic databases including Ovid Medline (PubMed), Embase (Embase.com), PsycINFO, ProQuest Dissertations and Google Scholar. All relevant published peer-reviewed and dissertaion grey literature will be included. Data will be extracted using a standardised form to capture key article information. Results will be presented in a descriptive narrative format. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: This review does not require ethics approval though all included studies will be screened to ensure appropriate approval. The synthesis of this literature will provide a better understanding of the current state of work for inpatient clinicians, associated outcomes, and will identify gaps in the literature. These findings will be used in conjunction with an expert Delphi panel to identify measures of inpatient clinician workload to then guide the development of a novel workforce mobile application to actively track clinician work. We aim to lay the groundwork for future workforce studies to understand the optimal workloads that drive key outcomes for clinicians, patients and institutions.