Implications of the hospitalist model for medical students' education

At many academic health centers, medical students in internal medicine, family medicine, and pediatrics are working with a new form of attending physician, the hospitalist. Although a growing literature demonstrates the benefits of hospitalists for patients and housestaff, the influence of hospitalists on students has been underemphasized. Advantages of the hospitalist model for students can include hospitalists' expertise in general inpatient medicine, their availability to teach throughout the day, and their role-modeling of the provision of high-quality and efficient care. However, the change in the ward attending workforce from non-hospitalist generalists, subspecialists, and biomedical researchers to generalist-hospitalists potentially limits students' exposure to the broad range of career opportunities the former group represents. The authors propose a research agenda to investigate the educational impact of the hospitalist model, suggest strategies to mitigate the limitations in students' exposures to subspecialty faculty, and recommend professional development in teaching for hospitalists to ensure that student education thrives in this new environment of inpatient medicine.