Recruitment to internal medicine, particularly general internal medicine, may be stymied by value differences between two generations—physicians in current practice and those now going into residency.
Today's residents “have seen their parents grow up being workaholics, but they want a balance in their lives,” Dr. Keenan said. “Internal medicine demands a lot of hours, after-hours phone calls, and weekend call, yet you don't get reimbursed very well for these activities.” This contrasts with the pager-free shift work of emergency physicians, he said. Yet heavy patient loads make hospitals loath to reduce the 80-hour weeks that IM residents must endure.
The changes discussed by the task force are similar to those recommended by the American College of Physicians in a position paper published in the June 2006 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine (2006;144:927–32).
The next AAIM meeting will be in 2008 and is open to all practicing internists, as well as academic staff in departments of internal medicine. For more information, visit www.im.org
One option is to have residents spend 3 months in ambulatory care and then rotate back to the hospital. DR. SCHUSTER