Where Do International Medical Graduates Matriculate for Internal Medicine Training? A National Longitudinal Study.

INTRODUCTION: In 2020, roughly 25% of applicants who matched into internal medicine (IM) residencies were international medical graduates (IMGs). We examine 12-year trends in distribution of IMGs among IM training programs and explore differences in program perceptions towards IMG recruitment. METHODS: Since 2007, Association of Program Directors in Internal Medicine Annual Surveys have collected data about trainees by medical school graduate type. Sixteen additional questions regarding perceptions of IMGs were included in the 2017 spring survey. RESULTS: The 2017 survey response rate was 63.3% (236/373) and ranged from 61.9 to 70.2% for the 2007-2019 Annual Surveys. During that 12-year period, 55-70% of community programs' and 22-30% of university programs' PGY1 positions were filled by IMGs. In 2017, 45% of community programs' and 15% of university programs' interview and ranking positions were allocated to IMGs. Departmental pressure (university 45.6% [95% CI 43.7-47.5]; community 28.2% [95% CI 26.6-29.7]; p = 0.007), institutional priority (university 64.0% [95% CI 62.1-66.0]; community 41% [95% CI 36.9-44.6]; p = 0.001), and reputational concerns (university 52.8% [95% CI 50.0-55.6]; community 38.5% [95% CI 36.0-40.9]; p = 0.045) were cited as factors influencing recruitment of IMGs. CONCLUSION: Our study was limited to exploring program factors in residency recruitment and did not assess applicant preferences. There is a large, longstanding difference in the recruitment of IMGs to US community-based and university residencies, beginning during the interview and ranking process. Further research in disparities in IMG recruitment is needed, including exploring pressures, preferences, and potential biases associated with the recruitment of IMGs.

Supporting Trainees by Addressing Inappropriate Behaviors by Patients.

OBJECTIVES: Physicians in training may be particularly vulnerable to the negative effects of discrimination and inappropriate behaviors by patients. We sought to determine the frequency of inappropriate behaviors by patients toward Internal Medicine (IM) residents, residents' confidence to manage the behaviors, and differences among demographic characteristics, including race, sex, and level of clinical experience. METHODS: We developed a curricular session to equip IM residents and faculty to respond to discrimination or inappropriate behaviors by patients. Before the session, we surveyed residents about their experiences with macroaggressions, microaggressions, and other inappropriate behaviors using a 16-question survey instrument. We used descriptive statistics to summarize the participants' characteristics and the χ2 or Fisher exact test for comparison between groups. RESULTS: Eighty-two percent (27 of 33) of residents who attended the workshop completed the survey. We found that the majority of residents experienced patient macro- and microaggressions. More than 50% had a personal experience or witnessed experience with a macroaggression related to race (56%) or gender (59%). Seventy percent of residents personally experienced a microaggression by a patient. Women and residents of color are more likely to experience these types of encounters, which become more common in residents with higher postgraduate year level. Confidence in how to appropriately respond to such encounters is low. CONCLUSIONS: Our study highlights that macro- and microaggressions by patients toward IM residents are common. Curricula are needed to equip trainees with tools to appropriately respond during such encounters.

Physician Order Entry Clerical Support Improves Physician Satisfaction and Productivity.

OBJECTIVES: To examine the impact of clerical support personnel for physician order entry on physician satisfaction, productivity, timeliness with electronic health record (EHR) documentation, and physician attitudes. METHODS: All seven part-time physicians at an academic general internal medicine practice were included in this quasi-experimental (single group, pre- and postintervention) mixed-methods study. One full-time clerical support staff member was trained and hired to enter physician orders in the EHR and conduct previsit planning. Physician satisfaction, productivity, timeliness with EHR documentation, and physician attitudes toward the intervention were measured. RESULTS: Four months after the intervention, physicians reported improvements in overall quality of life (good quality, 71%-100%), personal balance (43%-71%), and burnout (weekly, 43%-14%; callousness, 14%-0%). Matched for quarter, productivity increased: work relative value unit (wRVU) per session increased by 20.5% (before, April-June 2014; after, April-June 2015; range -9.2% to 27.5%). Physicians reported feeling more supported, more focused on patient care, and less stressed and fatigued after the intervention. CONCLUSIONS: This study supports the use of physician order entry clerical personnel as a simple, cost-effective intervention to improve the work lives of primary care physicians.

For the General Internist: A Summary of Key Innovations in Medical Education.

We conducted a review of published medical education articles to identify high-quality research and innovation relevant to educators in general medicine. Our review team consisted of six general internists with expertise in medical education and a professional medical librarian. We manually searched 15 journals in pairs (a total of 3062 citations) for original research articles in medical education published in 2014. Each pair of reviewers independently rated the relevance, importance, and generalizability of articles on medical education in their assigned journals using a 27-point scale (maximum of 9 points for each characteristic). From this list, each team member independently reviewed the 22 articles that received a score of 20 or higher from both initial reviewers, and for each selected article rated the quality and global relevance for the generalist educator. We included the seven top-rated articles for presentation in this review, and categorized the studies into four general themes: continuity clinic scheduling, remediation, interprofessional education, and quality improvement and patient safety. We summarized key findings and identified significant limitations of each study. Further studies assessing patient outcomes are needed to strengthen the literature in medical education. This summary of relevant medical education articles can inform future research, teaching, and practice.

Evaluation of a workshop to improve residents' patient-centred obesity counselling skills.

BACKGROUND: Primary care physicians are being asked to counsel their patients on obesity and weight management. Few physicians conduct weight loss counselling citing barriers, among them a lack of training and confidence. Our objective was to pilot test the effectiveness of a 3-h interactive obesity-counselling workshop for resident physicians based on motivational interviewing (MI) techniques. DESIGN: This study used a pretest/post-test cross-sectional design. A convenience sample of resident physicians was invited to participate. Participating resident physicians completed a preintervention and postintervention questionnaire to assess their knowledge, beliefs and confidence in obesity counselling. MI techniques taught in the intervention were evaluated by audio recording interviews with a standardised patient (SP) pre intervention and post intervention. Audio recordings were transcribed and coded by two independent coders using a validated assessment tool. Paired t tests were used to assess preintervention and postintervention differences. RESULTS: Eight-six residents attended the workshop. At baseline, the majority (71%) felt that there is not enough time to counsel patients about obesity and only 24% felt that residency trained them to counsel. After the intervention, knowledge and confidence in counselling increased (p<0.001). Among the 55 residents with complete pre-post SP interview data, MI adherent statements increased from a mean of 2.88 to 5.42 while the MI non-adherent statements decreased from 6.73 to 2.33 (p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: After a brief workshop to train physicians to counsel on obesity-related behaviours, residents improved their counselling skills and felt more confident on counselling patients. Future studies are needed to assess whether these gains are sustained over time.

For the general internist: a review of relevant 2013 innovations in medical education.

We conducted a review of articles published in 2013 to identify high-quality research in medical education that was relevant to general medicine education practice. Our review team consisted of six general internists with expertise in medical education of varying ranks, as well as a professional medical librarian. We manually searched 15 journals in pairs, and performed an online search using the PubMed search engine for all original research articles in medical education published in 2013. From the total 4,181 citations identified, we selected 65 articles considered most relevant to general medicine educational practice. Each team member then independently reviewed and rated the quality of each selected article using the modified Medical Education Research Study Quality Instrument. We then reviewed the quality and relevance of each selected study and grouped them into categories of propensity for inclusion. Nineteen studies were felt to be of adequate quality and were of moderate to high propensity for inclusion. Team members then independently voted for studies they felt to be of the highest relevance and quality within the 19 selected studies. The ten articles with the greatest number of votes were included in the review. We categorized the studies into five general themes: Improving Clinical Skills in UME, Inpatient Clinical Teaching Methods, Advancements in Continuity Clinic, Handoffs/Transitions in Care, and Trainee Assessment. Most studies in our review of the 2013 literature in general medical education were limited to single institutions and non-randomized study designs; we identified significant limitations of each study. Selected articles may inform future research and practice of medical educators.

Teaching behaviors that define highest rated attending physicians: a study of the resident perspective.

BACKGROUND: Better understanding teaching behaviors of highly rated clinical teachers could improve training for teaching. We examined teaching behaviors demonstrated by higher rated attending physicians. METHODS: Qualitative and quantitative group consensus using the nominal group technique (NGT) among internal medicine residents and students on hospital services (2004-2005); participants voted on the three most important teaching behaviors (weight of 3 = top rated, 1 = lowest rated). Teaching behaviors were organized into domains of successful rounding characteristics. We used teaching evaluations to sort attending physicians into tertiles of overall teaching effectiveness. RESULTS: Participants evaluated 23 faculty in 17 NGT sessions. Participants identified 66 distinct teaching behaviors (total sum of weights [sw] = 502). Nineteen items had sw ≥ 10, and these were categorized into the following domains: Teaching Process (n = 8; sw = 215, 42.8%), Learning Atmosphere (n = 5; sw = 145, 28.9%), Role Modeling (n = 3; sw = 74, 14.7%) and Team Management (n = 3; sw = 65, 12.9%). Attendings in the highest tertile received a larger number of votes for characteristics within the Teaching Process domain (56% compared to 39% in lowest tertile). CONCLUSIONS: The most effective teaching behaviors fell into two broad domains: Teaching Process and Learning Atmosphere. Highest rated attending physicians are most recognized for characteristics in the Teaching Process domain.

Succeeding as a Clinician Educator: useful tips and resources.

Clinician Educators (CEs) play an essential role in the education and patient care missions of academic medical centers. Despite their crucial role, academic advancement is slower for CEs than for other faculty. Increased clinical productivity demands and financial stressors at academic medical centers add to the existing challenges faced by CEs. This perspective seeks to provide a framework for junior CEs to consider with the goal of maximizing their chance of academic success. We discuss six action areas that we consider central to flourishing at academic medical centers: 1. Clarify what success means and define goals; 2. Seek mentorship and be a responsible mentee; 3. Develop a niche and engage in relevant professional development; 4. Network; 5. Transform educational activities into scholarship; and 6. Seek funding and other resources.

Using cognitive mapping to define key domains for successful attending rounds.

BACKGROUND: Ward attending rounds are an integral part of internal medicine education. Being a good teacher is necessary, but not sufficient for successful rounds. Understanding perceptions of successful attending rounds (AR) may help define key areas of focus for enhancing learning, teaching and patient care. OBJECTIVE: We sought to expand the conceptual framework of 30 previously identified attributes contributing to successful AR by: 1) identifying the most important attributes, 2) grouping similar attributes, and 3) creating a cognitive map to define dimensions and domains contributing to successful rounds. DESIGN: Multi-institutional, cross-sectional study design. PARTICIPANTS: We recruited residents and medical students from a university-based internal medicine residency program and a community-based family medicine residency program. Faculty attending a regional general medicine conference, affiliated with multiple institutions, also participated. MAIN MEASURES: Participants performed an unforced card-sorting exercise, grouping attributes based on perceived similarity, then rated the importance of attributes on a 5-point Likert scale. We translated our data into a cognitive map through multi-dimensional scaling and hierarchical cluster analysis. KEY RESULTS: Thirty-six faculty, 49 residents and 40 students participated. The highest rated attributes (mean rating) were "Teach by example (bedside manner)" (4.50), "Sharing of attending's thought processes" (4.46), "Be approachable-not intimidating" (4.45), "Insist on respect for all team members" (4.43), "Conduct rounds in an organized, efficient & timely fashion" (4.39), and "State expectations for residents/students" (4.37). Attributes were plotted on a two-dimensional cognitive map, and adequate convergence was achieved. We identified five distinct domains of related attributes: 1) Learning Atmosphere, 2) Clinical Teaching, 3) Teaching Style, 4) Communicating Expectations, and 5) Team Management. CONCLUSIONS: We identified five domains of related attributes essential to the success of ward attending rounds.

Supporting Physician Pregnancy: What Is Taking So Long?

Challenges persist for female physicians and physicians in training who desire to have children. A scoping review in this issue of Academic Medicine identifies 4 major themes that have evolved over time and have surged in numbers as more women have entered the medical profession and as the sociopolitical environment has progressed: the impact of pregnancy on the physician and her colleagues, pregnant physician work productivity, physician maternity leave policies, and physician maternal-fetal health outcomes. The persistence of themes over time should compel the medical profession and society to address the challenges that face female physicians and physicians in training who desire to have children and to find solutions for them. Women should be able to be physicians, have children if they wish, and have the same health care considerations as nonphysician women. Institutional, departmental, and personal support structures must become a priority.

Internal Medicine Residency Program Director Support and Burnout During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Results of a National Survey.

Background: Burnout is common among physicians and physician leaders, including residency program directors (PDs). The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and other stressors in 2020 on PDs is unknown. Objective: To measure the prevalence of burnout among internal medicine (IM) residency PDs 6 months into the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: A total of 429 IM PDs, representing 83% of accredited residency programs, were surveyed from August to December 2020. Burnout, using a 2-item screening tool, and self-reported consideration of resigning in 2020, were compared to their annual prevalence since 2012 and tested for possible associations with pandemic stressors and program characteristics. Results: The survey response rate was 61.5% (264 of 429). One-third (33.6%, 87 of 259) of PD respondents met burnout criteria, and 45.1% (110 of 244) reported considering resigning in the past year, which were within the range of preceding years. PDs who reported feeling highly supported by institutional leadership were less likely to meet burnout criteria and to have considered resigning. There were no associations between burnout or consideration of resigning and the amount of clinical time PDs spent in their roles, duration of maximum stress on programs, budget cuts to programs, or geographic region. Conclusions: The prevalence of burnout among PDs in fall 2020 was similar to the prevalence of burnout in pre-pandemic years despite uniquely extreme stressors. PDs' perception of being highly supported by institutional leadership was associated with lower prevalence of burnout and consideration of resigning. Perceived leadership support may be a protective factor against burnout during periods of high stress.

Creating Clinician Educators: Evaluation of a One-Month Medical Education Curriculum for Senior Residents.

BACKGROUND: Clinician-educator tracks improve teaching behaviors in trainees. However, detailed curriculum descriptions to fully understand, compare, and reproduce them are often lacking. We aimed to describe and evaluate a medical education curriculum for senior residents. METHODS: Based on Kolb's experiential learning model, we designed a one-month curriculum to increase teaching effectiveness. PGY 2-4 internal medicine and medicine-pediatrics residents in a university-based training program participated in the course from 2015-2019. In a pre-post design, participants completed a survey to evaluate the curriculum. Survey items related to four constructs in medical education: knowledge, confidence, skills, and importance (5-point Likert scale; 1=low, 5=high). We assessed the difference in the means for each construct before and after the curriculum. RESULTS: Thirty-nine residents completed the curriculum (19% of total residents), and 100% of participants completed the surveys. We observed an increase in the mean self-rated level of teaching knowledge (2.63 [SD 0.57] vs. 4.43 [SD 0.42], p<0.005), confidence (3.31 [SD 0.4] vs. 4.29 [SD 0.32], p<0.005), and skills (2.9 [SD 0.63] vs. 4.14 [SD 0.38], p<0.005) after completing the course. Residents consistently graded individual curricular components highly. CONCLUSIONS: We describe a one-month medical education curriculum with a strong foundation in learning theory. The curriculum is feasible and presented in sufficient detail to allow reproduction. Our findings suggest that it increases participants' self-perceptions of teaching knowledge, confidence, and skills.

Assessment of Training in Health Disparities in US Internal Medicine Residency Programs.

Importance: Health disparities continue to exist despite the call to increase education of health care practitioners. An assessment of health disparities education has not been previously studied in a national cohort. Objective: To describe and compare the curriculum on health disparities from the perspective of program directors and perceptions of training among internal medicine residents. Design, Setting, and Participants: This cross-sectional survey study used a survey of US internal medicine program directors, the 2015 Association of Program Directors in Internal Medicine annual survey, which included questions about health disparities curriculum, and a 1-time survey of US internal medicine residents that asked questions related to their training in health disparities on the American College of Physicians 2015 Internal Medicine In-Training Examination. All internal medicine program directors who were members of Association of Program Directors in Internal Medicine (368 of 396 accredited programs), and internal medicine residents who took the Internal Medicine In-Training Examination were eligible. Final analysis of the merged data set was completed in 2018. Exposures: Questions were included on the annual Association of Program Directors in Internal Medicine survey and the Internal Medicine In-Training Examination. Main Outcomes and Measures: Program directors reported on presence of health disparities curriculum, educational methods, quality, barriers and challenges to curriculum, and Clinical Learning Environment Review. Residents reported whether they received training and quality of the training in health disparities. Results: A total of 227 program directors (response rate, 61.7%) and 22 723 residents (response rate, 87.2%) responded to the surveys. A total of 90 program directors (39.6%) reported a curriculum in health disparities, but among these, only 16 program directors (17.8%) felt quality of their education was very good or excellent. In more than half of the programs (52 programs [55.9%]), outcomes of the curriculum were not measured. After merging, the combined data set included 18 883 residents from 366 APDIM member programs with 225 program director responses. Among these, 13 251 residents (70.2%) reported some training in caring for patients at risk for health disparities. Of residents who reported receiving training, 10 494 (79.2%) rated the quality as very good or excellent. Conclusions and Relevance: These findings suggest that that despite the Clinical Learning Environment Review mandate and Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education required competencies for training in health disparities, relatively few internal medicine programs in the US provided educational curriculum. Additionally, the existence of health disparities curricula in internal medicine training programs was not associated with resident's perception of training or its quality.

Internal Medicine Residency Program Directors' Screening Practices and Perceptions About Recruitment Challenges.

PURPOSE: To examine internal medicine residency program directors' (PDs') screening practices and perceptions about current recruitment challenges. METHOD: In March-May 2017, the Association of Program Directors in Internal Medicine Survey Committee sent a survey to 373 Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine member residency programs. PDs rated the importance of 23 inclusion and 11 exclusion criteria for interview invitation decision making, provided United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) cutoff scores for U.S. medical school and international medical graduates, and indicated changes in recruitment practices due to application inflation, including their ability to conduct holistic review and interest in potential solutions to address application inflation. Exploratory factor analysis was used to identify and confirm factors that were most important to interview invitation decision making. RESULTS: The response rate for eligible programs was 64% (233/363). USMLE Step 2 Clinical Knowledge scores were the criteria most frequently reported to be "very important" (131/233, 57%). Among respondents who reported any criteria as "very important," 155/222 (70%) identified a single most important (SMI) criterion. Non-USMLE criteria were frequently reported as an SMI criterion (68%). Concerning exclusion criteria, 157/231 (68%) reported they "absolutely would not invite" applicants with hints of unprofessional behavior. Of the 214/232 (92%) who reported an increase in applications, 138 (64%) adjusted recruitment practices. Respondents were most interested in limiting the number of applications per applicant (163/231, 71%), allowing applicants to indicate high interest in a subset of programs (151/229, 66%), and creating a national database of qualities of matched applicants for each program (121/228, 53%). CONCLUSIONS: PDs rely heavily on USMLE scores when making interview invitation decisions. However, collectively, non-USMLE criteria were more frequently reported as an SMI criterion. Most programs adjusted recruitment practices to respond to application volume. Several potential solutions to address application inflation garnered wide support.