Division of Kidney Diseases and Hypertension, Department of Medicine, North Shore University Hospital and Long Island Jewish Medical Center, Hofstra North Shore-LlJ School of Medicine, Great Neck, NY 11021, USA.
Am J Kidney Dis. 2012 Sep;60(3):350-3. doi: 10.1053/j.ajkd.2012.04.020. Epub 2012 Jun 1.
Promoting interest in nephrology as a career is vital to sustain a workforce adequate to meet the projected demand for nephrologists. The educational experiences that internal medicine residents have may play an important role in influencing such choices, and attempts to enrich such experiences could prove a useful strategy to help facilitate interest in careers in nephrology. Like many electives, nephrology rotations typically consist of activities heavily weighted toward inpatient care. This type of elective is unlikely to provide a representative exposure to the breadth of nephrologists' roles and may lack sufficient mentoring opportunities. We describe an innovative design for a nephrology elective that provides residents with educational experiences in both inpatient and outpatient venues and exposure to faculty with diverse interests and areas of expertise. Our experience with this elective in comparison to a traditional inpatient-based elective suggests that the combined elective format is perceived favorably by medical residents and provides them with a better educational experience, more representative exposure to nephrology, positive mentoring experiences, and the potential for greater interest in pursuing nephrology as a career. Our findings offer the possibility that interventions at the level of medical resident education might be a means to help promote interest in careers in nephrology.
倡导将肾脏病学作为职业选择，对于维持一支充足的医疗团队以满足预期的肾脏病医生需求至关重要。内科住院医师所经历的教育体验可能在影响这些选择方面发挥重要作用，而丰富这些体验的尝试可能是帮助促进对肾脏病学职业兴趣的有效策略。与许多选修课程一样，肾脏病学轮转通常包括以住院患者护理为重点的活动。这种类型的选修课程不太可能提供对肾脏病医生角色广泛范围的代表性接触，也可能缺乏足够的指导机会。我们描述了一种创新的肾脏病选修课程设计，为住院医师提供住院和门诊环境中的教育体验，并接触具有不同兴趣和专业领域的教师。与传统的以住院为基础的选修课程相比，我们对该选修课程的经验表明，联合选修课程模式受到医学住院医师的欢迎，并为他们提供更好的教育体验、更具代表性的肾脏病接触、积极的指导经验，以及对追求肾脏病学职业的更大兴趣的可能性。我们的发现表明，在医学住院医师教育层面进行干预可能是促进对肾脏病学职业兴趣的一种手段。
