A Gap in Mission: The Disparate Missions of Medical Schools and Teaching Hospitals

The social contract mandates that in return for the government-funded labor of residents and fellows, the medical profession trains, to the best of its ability, the physicians of our future. This contract obligates graduate medical education (GME) to utilize all available information to create an optimal learning environment for its trainees. Business research has determined that a clearly defined mission statement is associated with improved employee engagement, retention, and wellness. Given that GME trainees are situated at the intersection of at least two institutions, each with its own separate mission, trainees could potentially be hindered by incongruent missions in the learning environment. The literature on mission statements has analyzed medical schools and hospitals separately; however, investigations comparing the statements of these affiliated institutions have not been conducted. Therefore, we plan to compare the content and assess the consistency of mission statements from affiliated medical schools and hospitals to determine if incongruencies exist.

In 2023, the mission statements from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) medical schools and affiliated teaching hospitals (n = 163) were aggregated from their public websites. The content of each mission statement was thematically analyzed to assess variation.

According to content analysis of the mission statements from 163 AAMC medical school members and affiliated teaching hospitals, less than half of their top priorities are shared by their affiliated hospitals (45%). Additionally, themes of diversity, religion, and global care were found to be contrasting priorities between affiliated institutions.

Given the precedence within the business and the observed discrepancies in mission, further research is needed to determine whether collaborating medical schools and hospitals could provide a more favorable graduate training environment by uniting their priorities and identifying shared goals.