ObjectiveTo examine and compare perceptions between resident-trainees and faculty-educators on goals
and reasons why resident trainees choose certain subspecialty elective
rotations.Methods In June 2013 residents and faculty-educators
at a large tertiary care academic medical center were surveyed regarding
perceived resident goals for subspecialty electives. Each group was sent a
different electronic survey of parallel questions assessing agreement on an
ordered scale with statements about which factors impacted resident
choice.ResultsThe survey was
sent to 154 residents and had 75 (49%) respondents, as well as 20 faculty-educators
with 12 (60%) respondents. Residents and faculty did not differ in their
responses that electives were chosen to fill perceived knowledge gaps (exact
Cochran-Armitage p = .51). However, educators and residents significantly
varied in the degree to which they thought resident choice was based on networking
within the field (exact Cochran-Armitage p = .01), auditioning for fellowship
(exact Cochran-Armitage p < .01), or exploring career options (exact Cochran-Armitage p = .01), with
educators overestimating the degree to which these impacted resident choice. ConclusionsResident trainees and faculty educators agree that subspecialty electives are most
frequently chosen in order to meet resident educational goals, highlighting the
importance of developing and delivering high quality subspecialty curricular
content for the internal medicine resident learner during electives. Many
residents choose electives for career development reasons, but faculty
educators overestimate this motivation.
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