BRIEFREPORT T oday's medical students have different priorities and expectations for work-life balance than previous generations.1,2 Stress and long work hours during residency training often lead to burnout, depression, suboptimal patient care, and an inferior educational experience. [3][4][5] Studies of the few programs offering part-time options show that residents have less burnout, better faculty evaluations, and equivalent board pass rates compared to fulltime colleagues. 6 We hypothesized that the majority of medical students would desire flexible residency training schedules. MethodsTo assess medical students' interest in flexible residency training options we developed an 11-item survey using a combination of expert opinion, literature review, and a pilot study at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. We designed one question based on an instrument utilized in a prior study with similar intent at the Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1976. 7 The survey questions included in this analysis are listed in Table 1. This study received an exemption from the University of Chicago Institutional Review Board. We surveyed second through fourth-year medical students at (1) RESULTS:The survey was completed by 789 medical students. Over half of medical students surveyed indicated that they would be interested in working part-time during some portion of their residency training (51%), and that access to part-time training options would increase their likelihood of applying to a particular residency program (52%). When given the option of three residency training schedules of varying lengths, 41% of male students and 60% of female students chose a 60-hour workweek, even when that meant extending the residency length by 33% and reducing their yearly salary to $39,000. CONCLUSIONS:There is considerable interest among medical students in access to part-time residency training options and reduced-hour residency programs. This level of interest indicates that offering flexible training options could be an effective recruitment tool for residency programs and could improve students' perception of their work-life balance during residency.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.