Medical student evaluation of the quality of hospitalist and nonhospitalist teaching faculty on inpatient medicine rotations.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the impact of academic hospitalists on third-year medical students during inpatient medicine rotations.


METHODS
The authors conducted a retrospective quantitative assessment of medical student evaluations of hospitalist and nonhospitalist Department of Medicine faculty at Oregon Health & Science University, for the 1998-00 academic years. Using a nine-point Likert-type scale, students evaluated the faculty on the following characteristics: communication of rotation goals, establishing a favorable learning climate, use of educational time, teaching style, evaluation and feedback, contributions to the student's growth and development, and overall effectiveness as a clinical teacher.


RESULTS
A total of 138 students rotated on the university wards during the study period; 100 with hospitalists, and 38 with nonhospitalists. Of these students, 99 (71.7%) returned evaluations. The hospitalists received higher numeric evaluations for all individual attending characteristics. Significance was achieved comparing communication of goals (p =.011), effectiveness as a clinical teacher (p =.016), and for the combined analysis of all parameters (p <.001). Despite lack of achieving statistical significance, there was a trend toward hospitalists being more likely to contribute to the medical student's perception of growth and development during the period evaluated (p =.065).


CONCLUSIONS
In addition to performing the responsibilities required of full-time hospital-based physicians, hospitalists were able to provide at least as positive an educational experience as did highly rated nonhospitalist teaching faculty and in some areas performed better. A hospitalist model can be an effective method of delivering inpatient education to medical students.
Hunter
Alan J
AJ
Department of Medicine, Oregon Health & Science University School of Medicine, Portland 97239, USA. huntera@oshu.edu
Desai
Sima S
SS
Harrison
Rebecca A
RA
Chan
Benjamin K S
BK
D000328:Adult; D000553:Ambulatory Care; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002982:Clinical Clerkship; D002983:Clinical Competence; D003479:Curriculum; D005180:Faculty, Medical; D005194:Family Practice / Q000193:education*; D005260:Female; D020445:Hospitalists; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009922:Oregon; D015397:Program Evaluation; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*; D013663:Teaching