Evaluation of a longitudinal subspecialty clinic for internal medicine residents

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND

The traditional model for subspecialty education in internal medicine (IM) residencies is a short inpatient consult rotation, which often lacks outpatient exposure and continuity with faculty. Our IM residency program developed a longitudinal subspecialty clinic (LSC) experience, which pairs categorical IM residents with a faculty preceptor in their subspecialty of interest. Residents work in their preceptor’s clinic for one half-day per week during ambulatory blocks throughout the PGY2 year.

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the LSC program’s educational impact and determine best practices for successful implementation.

METHODS

From May to July 2019, we surveyed residents and preceptors who participated in an LSC between 2014 and 2019, gathering quantitative and qualitative data on their experiences

RESULTS

Survey response rates were 66.4% (N=93/140) for residents, 57.7% (N=15/26) for preceptors. Most residents and preceptors were very or extremely satisfied with their LSC experience (83.3% and 71.4%, respectively). Most residents and preceptors reported that the LSC experience was very or extremely effective in enabling residents to explore their subspecialty of interest (76.0%, 86.7%), form a mentoring relationship with their preceptor (71.3%, 80.0%), obtain a letter of recommendation (76.1%, 64.3%), prepare for fellowship (76.3%, 66.7%), gain exposure to outpatient subspecialty practice (90.0%, 73.3%), and gain medical knowledge (84.6%, 80.0%).

CONCLUSIONS

Our data showed that LSCs are effective in facilitating longitudinal subspecialty career exploration, mentorship, and education for residents. Opportunities for improvement include developing a more structured curriculum, addressing scheduling issues, and adding the option to extend the experience to the PGY3 year.

KEYWORDS:

• Educational continuity
• internal medicine residency
• subspecialty education
• subspecialty choice
• longitudinal mentorship
• ambulatory education

Supplemental data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge the contributions of Bridget C. O’Brien, PhD, Patricia S. O’Sullivan, EdD, MS, and Christy K. Boscardin, PhD.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

None to report.