Are Pediatric Hospitalists Prepared to Supervise Fellows? A National Survey of Program Directors

Pediatric hospital medicine (PHM) fellowship programs have rapidly expanded since their official designation for subspeciality certification. In this new landscape, we explore how PHM fellowship programs select and prepare attendings to work with fellows on hospital medicine teams.

A national survey to explore current and ideal practices of PHM fellowship program directors (FPD) on attending preparation for fellow clinical supervision, including assessing interest for further faculty development.

This survey was distributed to approximately 72 PHM FPD nationwide in February 2024. Fifty-one FPD responded to the entirety of the survey (71% response rate). Many fellowship programs reported providing training preparation materials to attendings who work with fellows (94%), and fewer programs consistently provided learner handoff (31%). FPD reported that the fewest faculty were perceived as being very capable of ensuring that fellows had an appropriate level of autonomy on clinical service. They perceived the most important topic to be included in attending preparation as promoting fellow autonomy. Almost half of the programs were interested in preparation materials to assist a faculty development curriculum for fellow clinical supervision.

There is a wide range of practices in how PHM FPD prepare attendings to clinically supervise fellows. Many FPD reported interest in additional training materials to help prepare attendings in their program. Recognizing this national interest and understanding the most important topics for faculty development may help leaders in PHM fellowship programs further develop materials to ensure attendings are equipped with the skills to clinically supervise fellows.