Hiring in the Pediatric Hospital Medicine Board Certification Era: PHM Leader Perspectives

The designation of pediatric hospital medicine (PHM) as a board-certified (BC) subspecialty has led to uncertainty about the importance of PHM board certification in hiring pediatric hospitalists and ambiguity in counseling trainees interested in PHM careers about the decision to pursue fellowship. We sought to determine the importance of PHM board eligibility or certification in hiring practices.

We conducted an online, cross-sectional, survey-based study of individuals who self-identified as PHM division leadership utilizing the PHM Division Director Listserv and participant recruitment at a national meeting.

A total of 86 responses were received. A total of 64% (30/47) of university-setting hospitals, 77% (17/28) of community hospitals, and 100% (11/11) of combined settings reported that they will hire applicants who are not board-eligible (BE) or BC (P = .83). Of the hospitals who will be hiring non-BE hospitalists, 50% of university settings, 77% of community settings, and 55% of combined settings plan to give equal consideration to both BE and non-BE applicants (P = .21). A total of 57% (21/37) of programs with a PHM fellowship felt that fellowship training was an important or very important consideration in hiring, compared with 27% (13/49) of programs without a PHM fellowship (P = .04).

Programs with a PHM fellowship were significantly more likely to believe that fellowship training is an important consideration in hiring hospitalists. PHM board certification and fellowship training are perceived as more important by university-based programs, although all settings will consider hiring applicants who are not BC or BE.