An appraisal of goals for residency training in internal medicine

The goals for residency training in internal medicine were assessed by faculty and house staff members at one university-based program using a 38-item questionnaire based largely upon American Board of Internal Medicine criteria. The respondents rated each item according to its ideal importance, its actual emphasis in training, and the respondents' degree of satisfaction with their own level of accomplishment for that item. Faculty and house staff members shared similar perceptions of ideal goals and actual emphases of training, with both groups rating clinical judgment, gathering data, and formulating problems as the most important. Both groups also tended to rate highly as ideal goals those items that they considered to be their own professional strengths and that reflected their current respective roles in medical training. This trend was the most apparent for faculty members in ratings of academic skills and for house staff members in ratings of technical proficiency and patient management skills. The tendency to idealize one's own professional role and strengths may inhibit needed changes in residency training.