The Case for Junior Doctor Academic Internships: A Narrative Review of the Published Literature

There is a growing concern with the dwindling academic workforce especially in medicine. Academic internships refer to a hybrid internship during which an intern spends a period of time (typically 3-6 months) in academic/research endeavours. These may serve as initial research experience for junior doctors. However, the merits of this programme have not been assessed to date.

Studies on integrated academic internships by junior doctors (ie, interns) were included in the present review. The identified articles were grouped into themes. For each article, the methodological approach (and subsequent implemented methods) was noted. The articles were also critically appraised for methodological soundness (both at the study-level, and the outcome-level).

A total of 1621 publication titles were identified and screened, of which 8 publications were included in the final review. The major themes of the identified publications are: overview of the academic internship programme, evaluation of a programme's experience and outcomes, and other miscellaneous publications.

The studies to date have only reported on "soft outcomes", but overall, interns and supervisors alike appear to be satisfied with the programme. Whether the programme increases the likelihood of future academic careers is difficult to establish at this juncture. The academic internship posts appear to be competitive, which reflect their popularity among graduating medical students.