Reading habits of house-staff: what, where and why

As in-training evaluations often comment that house-staff do not read enough about cases, this study looked at the reading habits of internal medicine students and house-staff to assess whether they were reading about cases. All 38 trainees at a major teaching hospital were surveyed with a questionnaire. Overall, the house-staff read 8.7 hours/week, of which half is spent reading about cases. They read around approximately half of the cases they see. The more senior house-staff use journals and one major textbook; the medical students use only textbooks. The reading is done mainly at home, except by the senior residents who spent a quarter of their reading time in the library. The major reasons why the house-staff read are to prepare for presentations or for rounds with the attending physicians. These results suggest that contrary to what we anticipated, house-staff do indeed read about the cases they see on the wards.