Background: Point of care ultrasound (POCUS) significantly augments physical exam and improves medical management, and many medical schools across the United States are implementing undergraduate POCUS curricula. As a result, internal medicine (IM) residency programs have incoming interns with varying levels of POCUS knowledge and skill. We administered a needs assessment questionnaire to incoming interns [...]

Background: The Advanced Practice Fellowship at the University of Colorado Hospital is a 13-month post-graduate program designed to provide Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants with the medical knowledge and clinical skills necessary to practice hospital based medicine. As part of the program, Advanced practice fellows (APFs) have historically attended the internal medicine case conference, which [...]

Background: Feedback and teaching are critical to the development of clinical skills. Although they occur with regularity on medical wards, learners infrequently recognize them (Kogan et al. 2000). Feedback has been defined as providing information related to a learner’s performance that is intended to guide future thinking and behavior (Ende 1983, Shute 2008); while teaching [...]

Background: Healthcare expenditures in the United States have grown from 5% of the gross domestic product in 1960 to nearly 18% in 2015. Despite spending more for healthcare than any other industrialized country, healthcare outcomes are inferior. There are many factors identified for rising costs without an equivalent improvement in outcomes. This includes an estimated [...]

Background: Interdisciplinary communication, quality improvment, and patient safety, are integral components to providing quality healthcare. Furthermore, the ACGME recognizes the importance of the learning and working environment, a culture of safety, and providing opportunities for learners to participate in interprofessional quality improvement activities which it designates as a core program requirement. At the University of [...]

Background: The prevalence of gout has risen in recent decades despite advancements in therapeutic options due to several reasons, including lack of adherence to treatment guidelines by physicians and patients’ poor perception and adherence to therapy. We aim to assess the beliefs and knowledge of gout management in Internal Medicine residents, to investigate the gaps, [...]

Background: Early development of clinical reasoning and problem-solving competencies are essential in generating individualized, outcome-based, and cost-effective patient care plans (Nat Acad Press 2015). However, few medical schools and residency programs have an explicit curriculum in clinical reasoning (Graber et al., 2012). A recent survey of internal medicine clerkship directors found medical students receive limited [...]

Background: According to the CDC, at least 300,000 people older than 65 are hospitalized for hip fractures annually. Society of Hospital Medicine recognizes geriatric care as one of the core competencies, and hospitalists frequently provide care to geriatric hip fracture patients. Clearly hospitalists need to be competent providing care to such patients. Our goal was [...]

Background: Residents in Internal Medicine have traditionally taken electives that prepare or position them well for fellowships. Another purpose of elective time during residency is to expose the learner to career opportunities. As Hospital Medicine grows as a specialty, more training programs are offering electives for residents in this field. However, most elective descriptions that [...]

Background: Development of diagnostic reasoning is a critical component of medical education, and feedback related to clinical outcomes is an important means of calibrating one’s diagnostic decision-making. The hospital is a key training ground for the development of skills in diagnostic reasoning. However, given the multiple provider handoffs that now occur during the care of [...]