Practice transition in graduate medical education.
BACKGROUND
Debt repayment, professional negotiation and practice management skills are vital to a successful medical practice, yet are undervalued and seldom taught in graduate medical education. Medical residents need additional training to confidently transition to independent practice, requiring the development of novel curricula. Medical residents need additional training to confidently transition to independent practice METHODS: We developed a trial practice management curriculum to educate senior residents and fellows through voluntary workshops. Topics discussed in the workshops included debt repayment, billing compliance, medical malpractice, contract negotiations, and lifestyle and financial management. Resident self-confidence was assessed, and feedback was obtained through voluntary survey responses before and after attendance at a workshop, scored using a Likert scale.


RESULTS
Twenty-five residents from 20 specialties attended a 1-day session incorporating all lectures; 53 residents from 17 specialties attended a re-designed quarterly session with one or two topics per session. Survey evaluations completed before and after the workshop demonstrated an improvement in residents' self-assessment of confidence in contract negotiations (p < 0.001) and their first year in practice (p < 0.001): after the curriculum, 94 per cent (n = 42) of respondents felt confident participating in contract negotiations, and 93 per cent (n = 38) of respondents felt confident about their first year in practice. One hundred per cent of respondents agreed that the presentation objectives were relevant to their needs as residents.


CONCLUSIONS
Participant responses indicated a need for structured education in practice management for senior trainees. Senior residents and fellows will benefit most from curricula, but have high familial and professional demands on their schedules.
Stanford School of Medicine, California, USA.
Robyn
R
Shaffer
Department of Graduate Medical Education, Stanford School of Medicine, California, USA.
Nancy
N
Piro
Department of Neurosurgery, Stanford School of Medicine, California, USA.|Department of Medicine, Stanford School of Medicine, California, USA.
Laurence
L
Katznelson
Department of Neurosurgery, Stanford School of Medicine, California, USA.
Melanie Hayden
MH
Gephart
D000328:Adult; D003479:Curriculum; D004503:Education, Medical, Graduate / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007396:Internship and Residency; D008297:Male; D020399:Practice Management; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires