Learning, Satisfaction, and Mistreatment During Medical Internship: A National Survey of Working Conditions
CONTEXT.— Concerns about the working and learning environment of residency training continue to surface. Previous surveys of residents have focused on work hours and income, but have shed little light on how residents view their training experience. OBJECTIVE.— To provide a description of the intern...
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Published in | JAMA : the journal of the American Medical Association Vol. 279; no. 15; pp. 1194 - 1199 |
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Main Authors | , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Chicago, IL
American Medical Association
15.04.1998
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Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | CONTEXT.— Concerns about the working and learning environment of residency training
continue to surface. Previous surveys of residents have focused on work hours
and income, but have shed little light on how residents view their training
experience. OBJECTIVE.— To provide a description of the internship year as seen by a large cross
section of second-year residents. DESIGN.— Mail survey conducted in 1991. SETTING.— Residency programs in the United States. PARTICIPANTS.— Random 10% sample (N=1773) of all second-year residents listed in the
American Medical Association's medical research and information database. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES.— What and who contributes most to residents' learning during internships,
degree of satisfaction with the internship experience, on-call and sleep schedules,
incidents of perceived mistreatment or abuse, observations of unethical behavior,
and experiences of harassment or discrimination. RESULTS.— A total of 1277 surveys (72%) of 1773 mailed were returned. Overall,
respondents reported a moderate level of satisfaction with their first year
of residency. On a scale of 0 to 3, residents rated other residents as contributing
most (score of 2.3) to their learning, with special patients ranked second
(2.1). During a typical work week, residents reported that they spent an average
of 56.9 hours on call in the hospital. A total of 1185 (93%) residents reported
experiencing at least 1 incident of perceived mistreatment, with 53% reporting
being belittled or humiliated by more senior residents. Among women residents,
63% reported having experienced at least 1 episode of sexual harassment or
discrimination. A total of 45% of residents reported having observed another
individual falsifying medical records, and 70% saw a colleague working in
an impaired condition, most often lack of sleep. Regression analyses suggest
that satisfaction with the residency experience was associated with the presence
of factors that enhanced learning, and fewer experiences of perceived mistreatment. CONCLUSIONS.— Residents report significant problems during their internship experience.
Satisfaction with internship is enhanced by positive learning experiences
and lack of mistreatment. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 |
ISSN: | 0098-7484 1538-3598 |
DOI: | 10.1001/jama.279.15.1194 |