Nevertheless, SHM is ready to support a combined IM/HM preceptorship program that targets medical school students in their first and second years, says Larry Wellikson, MD, FHM, CEO of SHM. The society already has assigned staff to manage the project and named Dr. Afsar-manesh as the lead physician. The plan is to track preceptorship participants as they make their way through medical school and residency, and see if the program changes their attitudes toward IM careers.
Even though the number of medical students who aspire to hospitalist careers continues to increase every year, SHM believes it must move to counteract the lackluster IM numbers, because that is where most medical students are introduced to HM, Dr. Wellikson says. “The problem of people not picking internal medicine could affect hospital medicine down the road,” he says. “We can’t sit passively by and see who picks to be a hospitalist. We believe we need to be active.”
One of the last things Dr. Afsar-manesh did at the conclusion of the inaugural UPIM program was collect the students’ e-mail addresses and phone numbers so she can stay in touch and track their career paths. The UPIM survey results give her hope: After UPIM, 100% of the students were “extremely confident” in their decision to pursue medicine; 57% indicated they were “very likely” to consider IM as a specialty; and 47% were “very likely” to think about HM.
“This program is a great way to encourage students to enter into internal medicine,” Yudin says. “I am sure that all my subsequent experiences working in a hospital will be measured against my first experience rounding with the IM department.” It seems as though the student took the words right out of the doctor’s mouth. TH
Lisa Ryan is a freelance writer based in New Jersey.
Reference
- Hauer KE, Durning SJ, Kernan WN, et al. Factors associated with medical students’ career choices regarding internal medicine. JAMA. 2008;300(10):1154-1164.