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Part-time residency training in internal medicine: analysis of a ten-year experience
P C Carling1, K Hayward, E H Coakley
1Department of Medicine, Carney Hospital, Boston University School of Medicine, Massachusetts, USA.
Purpose:
To evaluate a ten-year experience (1983-1993) with a part-time residency curriculum.
Method:
In 1994, the authors analyzed the curriculum through interviews with graduates of a part-time residency track, surveys of faculty and graduates of a full-time residency program, and a quantitative comparison of faculty evaluations of those part-time and full-time residents.
Results:
Both participants and full-time residents supported the part-time track and reported no adverse effect on the residency program as a whole. Analysis of faculty evaluations found that part-time residents scored significantly higher with respect to clinical skills (p = .0005) and humanistic skills (p = .0001), while there was no difference between the groups in leadership or teaching skills.
Conclusions:
This part-time residency curriculum provided a highly useful program track for a group of internal medicine residents with concomitant obligations, allowing them to complete their training in an uninterrupted fashion. The part-time structure did not adversely affect clinical competence and may have fostered humanistic attributes. The authors believe that this form of curriculum deserves wider consideration in residency training.