Background: Interest in hospital medicine is rapidly growing, with a more than 50% growth rate of hospitalists between 2012 and 2019. Despite this large increase in practicing hospitalists, few formal residency resources exist to help internal medicine residents navigate the job application process and support their early hospitalist careers. While most residents will successfully seek out mentorship, many will not receive specific guidance on the nuances of applying including CV building, interview advice and contract negotiations. The Hospitalist Career Advisement Program (HCAP) was launched at our hospital in 2023 to meet these needs.
Purpose: HCAP is a comprehensive program to support internal medicine residents with an interest in hospital medicine. The goal of the program is to increase the exposure of our hospital’s internal medicine residents to the various clinical landscapes of hospital medicine, provide longitudinal mentorship, and give focused support in career readiness and placement.
Description: HCAP uses a four-phase approach to guide residents through the process of entering the field of hospital medicine. Phase one is the initial assessment and involves pairing the resident with a faculty advisor who matches their interests and works with the resident to establish career goals. Phase two focuses on increasing exposure to hospital medicine, primarily through a new hospitalist elective where residents serve as junior attendings and work with advanced practice providers (APPs). Residents are involved in interdisciplinary rounds, attend departmental meetings and are exposed to several aspects of hospital medicine based on resident interest (i.e., surgical co-management, oncology, nocturnist). Initial evaluations of the hospitalist elective have shown enhanced proficiency across the various roles of a hospitalist including better communication with APPs, greater understanding of interdisciplinary rounds and increased confidence in writing attestation notes. In addition to the hospitalist elective, residents are encouraged to attend Department of Hospital Medicine Grand Rounds, participate in residency career tracks (e.g., healthcare leadership, medical education), and work with faculty on quality improvement initiatives. Throughout this time, the assigned career advisor continues to serve as a source of support, checking-in with the resident at least twice annually. Phase three focuses on the application process. This includes an overview of the application timeline, CV and cover letter review, connecting applicants to residency alumni, and a series of targeted developmental workshops, such as interview preparation and financial planning. Residents are also provided with a comprehensive application guide created by former residents and faculty. Lastly, phase four focuses on longitudinal mentorship extending into the early career of the new hospitalist with future promotional support as they progress through their careers and assistance with scholarly projects among participants and across institutions. Upon completion of all four phases, participants will be surveyed to help improve the experience for future residents.
Conclusions: HCAP is a novel, four-phase program to support internal medicine residents interested in a career in hospital medicine. This is especially relevant today given the marked growth in career hospitalists nationally. Ultimately, the goal is to expand this program to other sites within our healthcare system and on a local and regional level.
