To What Extent Are Programs Recruiting Their Own Graduates as Faculty? A CERA Study.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Most family medicine (FM) residency programs continuously recruit faculty, though little is known about their recruitment practices. In this study, we sought to define to what extent FM residency programs are relying on recruitment of program graduates, regional programs, or programs outside their region for filling faculty roles and to compare these data across program characteristics. METHODS: As part of a large 2022 omnibus survey of FM residency program directors, we asked specific questions regarding the percentage of FM faculty who were graduates of that program, a program in the region, or a distant program. We aimed to determine to what extent respondents attempted to recruit their own residents to faculty positions and to identify additional program offerings and characteristics. RESULTS: The response rate was 41.4% (298/719). Programs reported hiring more of their own graduates compared to regional or distant graduates, and 40% prioritized recruiting their own graduates for open positions. Those who prioritized recruiting their own graduates were significantly more likely to have a higher percentage of their graduates on faculty as were larger, older, more urban programs and those offering clinical fellowships. The existence of a faculty development fellowship was significantly associated with having more faculty from regional programs. CONCLUSIONS: Programs that aim to improve faculty recruitment from their own graduates should consider prioritizing internal recruitment. They also may consider the development of both clinical and faculty development fellowships for local and regional hires.

Leveraging Free-Form Comments to Assess and Improve Patient Satisfaction.

This study employed a text-analysis methodology to identify themes within patient comments and measure the relationship of those themes to patient satisfaction. Using these findings, a spreadsheet tool was created to allow a large sample of comments to be readily analyzed. The tool was validated using patient comment data provided by the Family Medicine Residency of Idaho. The tool gives clinicians the ability to easily analyze patient comments and identify actionable measures of patient satisfaction. Additionally, this tool will allow researchers to reduce vast sets of comment text into numerical data suited for quantitative analyses.

The Interests of Family Medicine Residents in Future Faculty Positions Across the Senior Year.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The shortage of residency faculty in the pipeline is a growing concern to meet future workforce needs, though there is little research on attracting residents to be future faculty or what factors would influence their interest in this role. The objectives of this study were: (1) To assess the interest of third year residents (R3s) in faculty positions, and the various factors that might positively or negatively affect this decision; (2) to compare whether this changes across the R3 year; and (3) to compare between chief residents and other R3s. METHODS: Longitudinal survey at two points in time for each of three consecutive cohorts of R3s (2016-2018) from a regional network of family medicine residency programs. RESULTS: Among the final sample of R3s (176/545, 32% response), nearly half were interested in a residency faculty role. Strong positive influences on interest include the teaching role, advising/mentoring role, range of practice scope, and ability to perform procedures; salary and administrative responsibilities detract from interest. Among the matched sample of 96 R3s who also responded at Time 2 (55% response), non-chief residents had an increase in knowledge of and interest in the faculty role across the R3 year. CONCLUSIONS: Nearly half of senior family medicine residents report positive interest in residency faculty positions and in most components of the role. Mentorship may encourage more residents to consider these positions upon graduation or shortly thereafter. More research on other specialties and with career follow up is recommended.

Clinical Inquiry. Do inhaled steroids reduce bone mineral density and increase fracture risk?

No, except perhaps at high doses. Inhaled corticosteroids at low to medium doses (<1500 mcg beclomethasone hydrofluoroalkane per day) for asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease don't increase the risk of significant bone loss or fracture at 2 to 3 years follow-up. Higher doses, however, may raise the risk of nontraumatic fracture over 1 to 4 years of follow-up.