Clinical hospital medicine fellowships: Perspectives of employers, hospitalists, and medicine residents

AbstractBACKGROUNDClinical hospital medicine fellowships could accelerate the acquisition of increasingly demanding skills while enhancing esteem among subspecialty peers. We sought to determine whether medicine residents perceived such fellowships as relevant and would be willing to forgo substantial income during the training period, in the context of the perspectives of employers and practicing hospitalists.DESIGNA series of 3 tandem nationwide cross‐sectional surveys conducted over the Internet during late 2005 and early 2006.METHODSSurvey I was sent to 195 hospitalist employers identified through filtering classified advertisements. Survey II (containing Survey I results) was E‐mailed by the Society of Hospital Medicine to its practicing hospitalists members. Survey III (containing results of the first 2 surveys) was E‐mailed to U.S. internal medicine program directors for forwarding to their residents.RESULTSTwo‐thirds of 103 employers would offer either a signing bonus or a starting salary increase of at least $10,000 to fellowship graduates (more than 20% would pay at least $20,000 more in the salary). Based on a median experience of 8 years, 91% of 101 practicing hospitali