Adolescent medicine education in pediatric residency programs following the 1978 Task Force on Pediatric Education...

In 1982, the Society for Adolescent Medicine initiated a survey of all pediatric residencies in the United States and Canada to determine: if there had been an increase in the amount and quality of adolescent medicine training since the 1978 report by the Task Force on Pediatric Education; if pediatric departments were assuming responsibility for the care of adolescents; and the curriculum objectives for adolescent medicine (AM), the educational methods used, and whether program graduates (PGs) felt competent to care for adolescents. One hundred directors and 72 recent graduates completed an initial questionnaire. A follow-up telephone survey of program directors (PDs) who did not respond resulted in 109 completed interviews. The survey results suggest a favorable trend in AM training. Evidence of this favorable trend includes: a 10% increase (p less than 0.05) in the number of AM wards, and a 33% increase (p less than 0.01) in clinics; a 29% increase (p less than 0.01) in programs having a block of time devoted to AM; increased time spent caring for adolescents at all resident levels; and an increase in adolescent inpatients of 32% and outpatients of 45% (p less than 0.01). An increase in the number of and time for mastery of curriculum objectives and educational methods was reported by PDs.