title: Meeting the needs of the resident trainee during an elective subspecialty rotation.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine and compare perceptions between resident-trainees and faculty-educators on goals and reasons why resident trainees choose certain subspecialty elective rotations.
  
  
  METHODS
  In June 2013 residents and faculty-educators at a large tertiary care academic medical center were surveyed regarding perceived resident goals for subspecialty electives. Each group was sent a different electronic survey of parallel questions assessing agreement on an ordered scale with statements about which factors impacted resident choice.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The survey was sent to 154 residents and had 75 (49%) respondents, as well as 20 faculty-educators with 12 (60%) respondents. Residents and faculty did not differ in their responses that electives were chosen to fill perceived knowledge gaps (exact Cochran-Armitage p = .51). However, educators and residents significantly varied in the degree to which they thought resident choice was based on networking within the field (exact Cochran-Armitage p = .01), auditioning for fellowship (exact Cochran-Armitage p < .01), or exploring career options (exact Cochran-Armitage p = .01), with educators overestimating the degree to which these impacted resident choice.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Resident trainees and faculty educators agree that subspecialty electives are most frequently chosen in order to meet resident educational goals, highlighting the importance of developing and delivering high quality subspecialty curricular content for the internal medicine resident learner during electives. Many residents choose electives for career development reasons, but faculty educators overestimate this motivation.
authors.affiliation: Division of Infectious Disease at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, USA.
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hale
authors.affiliation: Division of General Medicine and Primary Care at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, USA.
authors.forename: Rebecca
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Glassman
authors.affiliation: Division of Infectious Disease at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, USA.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Fessler
authors.affiliation: Division of General Medicine and Primary Care at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, USA.
authors.forename: Kenneth J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Mukamal
authors.affiliation: Division of Infectious Disease at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, USA.
authors.forename: Wendy
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Stead
mesh_terms: D000046:Academic Medical Centers; D002321:Career Choice; D005180:Faculty, Medical; D006801:Humans; D007388:Internal Medicine / Q000193:education*; D007396:Internship and Residency; D013038:Specialization; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: Residency curricula; faculty development; internal medicine resident education; subspecialty electives