A 15-year review of the Stanford Internal Medicine Residency Program: predictors of resident satisfaction and dissatisfaction

Abstract

Introduction: Satisfaction with training and with educational experiences represents important internal medicine (IM) programmatic goals. Graduates from IM residency programs are uniquely poised to provide insights into their educational and training experiences and to assess whether these experiences were satisfactory and relevant to their current employment.

Methods: We surveyed former IM residents from the training program held during the years 2000-2015 at the Department of Medicine, Stanford University. The first part of the survey reviewed the IM residency program and the second part sought identifying data regarding gender, race, ethnicity, work, relationships, and financial matters. The primary outcome was satisfaction with the residency experience.

Results: Of the 405 individuals who completed the Stanford IM residency program in the study period, we identified 384 (95%) former residents with a known email address. Two hundred and one (52%) former residents responded to the first part and 185 (48%) answered both the parts of the survey. The mean age of the respondents was 36.9 years; 44% were female and the mean time from IM residency was 6.1 (±4.3) years. Fifty-eight percent reported extreme satisfaction with their IM residency experience. Predictors associated with being less than extremely satisfied included insufficient outpatient experience, insufficient international experience, insufficient clinical research experience, and insufficient time spent with family and peers.

Conclusion: The residents expressed an overall high satisfaction rate with their IM training. The survey results provided insights for improving satisfaction with IM residency training that includes diversifying and broadening IM training experiences.

Keywords: internal medicine residency program; residents; training.

Figure 1

Satisfaction with internal medicine residency is displayed for different years of residency completion. Notes: The majority of graduates were extremely satisfied. The differences between years of completion groups were not statistically significant (analysis of variance 0.6178; p=0.07 uncorrected for multiple comparisons).

Figure 2

(A) Views of former residents regarding whether different types of internal medicine experiences should be changed are displayed. (B) Responses of former residents when asked for suggestions regarding satisfaction with the amount of time spent with peers and family.