Brief report: Multiprogram evaluation of reading habits of primary care internal medicine residents on ambulatory rotations.
OBJECTIVE
To assess the reading habits and educational resources of primary care internal medicine residents for their ambulatory medicine education.


METHODS
Cross-sectional, multiprogram survey of primary care internal medicine residents.


METHODS
Second- and third-year residents on ambulatory care rotations at 9 primary care medicine programs (124 eligible residents; 71% response rate).


RESULTS
Participants were asked open-ended and 5-point Likert-scaled questions about reading habits: time spent reading, preferred resources, and motivating and inhibiting factors. Participants reported reading medical topics for a mean of 4.3+/-3.0 SD hours weekly. Online-only sources were the most frequently utilized medical resource (mean Likert response 4.16+/-0.87). Respondents most commonly cited specific patients' cases (4.38+/-0.65) and preparation for talks (4.08+/-0.89) as motivating factors, and family responsibilities (3.99+/-0.65) and lack of motivation (3.93+/-0.81) as inhibiting factors.


CONCLUSIONS
To stimulate residents' reading, residency programs should encourage patient- and case-based learning; require teaching assignments; and provide easy access to online curricula.
Lai
Cindy J
CJ
University of California, San Francisco, CA 94143, USA. clai@medicine.ucsf.edu
Aagaard
Eva
E
Brandenburg
Suzanne
S
Nadkarni
Mohan
M
Wei
Henry G
HG
Baron
Robert
R
D000553:Ambulatory Care; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007388:Internal Medicine / Q000193:education*; D020407:Internet; D007396:Internship and Residency; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D010506:Periodicals as Topic; D011320:Primary Health Care; D015397:Program Evaluation; D011932:Reading; D014481:United States; D016526:Workload