Models for integrating behavioral medicine on a family medicine in-patient teaching service

Training physicians to effectively assess, diagnose, and treat patients' behavioral health concerns begin in residency. While this training is increasingly more common in outpatient educational settings, there is also a great need to teach physicians to practice behavioral medicine with patients who are hospitalized. However, teaching family medicine resident physicians to understand, value, and practice essential behavioral health knowledge and skills during inpatient rotations can be a challenge for both residents and educators. In this article, we describe three models of inpatient behavioral medicine teaching, each with examples of practical content and teaching methods. We discuss strategies for success and potential barriers to overcome while teaching in the inpatient setting. Helping patients choose to change their health behaviors, which likely contribute in part to the reasons for their hospitalizations in the first place, should begin while patients are still in the hospital. Models of teaching, such as those presented here, can help improve the way we train physicians to address behavioral health needs with hospitalized patients.