Education Niche Work
Hospitalists also are expected to play unique roles in healthcare education and the development of new knowledge. While this burden may seem to fall disproportionately on academic hospitalists, many community hospitalists also play a role here.
- Serve as a role model for residents and medical students: Much of medical education in medical school and residencies still occurs in the hospital. Hospitalists can bring the enthusiasm of being on the cutting edge of the future of healthcare to the next generation of physicians.
- Update medical education to address the training of young hospitalists and other health professionals: No one knows how large the gap between what they were taught in med school and what they are expected to perform in real time in real life is as well as hospitalists do. If hospitalists and the rest of the healthcare team are expected to improve quality performance (and measure it), mange patients efficiently, make the patient flow through the hospital go smoothly, and communicate to all stakeholders through the transitions and coordination of care, then we had better change what is taught in our professional schools; and
- Increase medical knowledge in hospital medicine through original research: Hospital medicine is a unique discipline that hopes to rely on evidence-based information. The Journal of Hospital Medicine provides a venue for displaying new information that the cadre of young hospitalist researchers will provide in health systems and quality improvement and patient safety studies.
By no means is this meant to be an exhaustive list, but rather a “Top 10” (or 11) gleaned from our survey of hospitalists. This study also examined the hospitalists’ view of the difficult issues facing hospitalists and the major barriers that hospitalists face in meeting these extensive and lofty expectations. In future columns we will examine these issues and barriers. In the meantime everyone should get back to work. We still have much left to do. TH
Dr. Wellikson has been CEO of SHM since 2000.