Internal Medicine Residents' Confidence and Preferences in Hospital Medicine Competencies: A Multi-Site Study

Hospital medicine (HM) is an important career option for internal medicine (IM) residency graduates. Limited data exist regarding preferences and educational gaps in HM competencies among IM residents.

To assess resident confidence and desire for additional instruction in HM competencies across a broad spectrum of residents.

A multi-center survey-based assessment of IM resident confidence and desire for additional instruction in published HM competencies.

PGY-1 through PGY-4 residents from eight US IM residency programs, including academic medical center (AMC) and community-based programs (CBPs).

Resident confidence and desire for more teaching in HM competency domains including procedures, point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS), system-level competencies, clinical skills, patient-level competencies, palliative care, and care transitions.

We received survey responses from 272 of 594 (46%) residents. More than half of respondents envisioned a future HM position. Results demonstrated lower than expected confidence for all HM competencies surveyed. Confidence was lowest (30-36% confident) for procedures, POCUS, and system-level competencies, and highest (65-78%) in care transitions, patient-level competencies, and palliative care. Desire for more instruction was highest in the same competency domains rated with the lowest confidence. Junior residents (PGY-1 and PGY-2) reported significantly lower confidence levels than senior residents (PGY-3 and PGY-4) across all domains except patient-level competencies. Junior residents expressed a significantly higher desire than senior residents for more teaching in all domains. There were no significant differences in confidence or desire for more instruction between trainees who envision a future HM position versus those who do not. Residents from AMCs expressed significantly higher confidence than those from CBPs in POCUS, clinical skill, patient-level, palliative care, and care transitions, while residents from CBPs reported significantly higher confidence in procedures.

Our data can inform targeted inpatient competencies and educational curricula for IM residents in the USA.