Evaluation of an Individualized Learning Plan Template for the Transition to Residency

Authors

Amber T Pincavage
Ashish Gandhi
Eli Falk
Lauren DiMarino
Douglas Ruiz Carbajal
Uma Ayyala
Jayaram Chandrasekar
Andrew N Dentino
Allison H Ferris
Richard M Forster
Paul A Hemmer
Nancy Masucci
William D Surkis
Valerie O
John H Choe

Publication Date

10-1-2023

Journal

Journal of Graduate Medical Education

DOI

10.4300/JGME-D-23-00040.1

PMID

37781434

PMCID

PMC10539155

PubMedCentral® Posted Date

10-15-2023

PubMedCentral® Full Text Version

Post-print

Published Open-Access

yes

Keywords

Humans, Internship and Residency, Clinical Competence, Education, Medical, Graduate, Curriculum, Educational Measurement

Abstract

Background Specialty-specific individualized learning plans (ILPs) have been promoted to improve the undergraduate to graduate medical education transition, yet few pilots have been described.

Objective To create and report on the feasibility and acceptability of a pilot internal medicine (IM) ILP template.

Methods The ILP was created by a group of diverse IM expert stakeholders and contained questions to stimulate self-reflection and collect self-reported readiness data from incoming interns. US IM residency programs were invited to pilot the ILP with interns in spring 2022. Data was used at the programs’ discretion. The pilot was evaluated by a post-pilot survey of programs to elicit perceptions of the impact and value of the ILP and analyze anonymous ILP data from 3 institutions.

Results Fifty-two IM residency programs agreed to participate with a survey response rate of 87% (45 of 52). Of responding programs, 89% (40 of 45) collected ILPs, thus we report on data from these 40 programs. A total of 995 interns enrolled with 782 completing ILPs (79%). One hundred eleven ILPs were analyzed (14%). Most programs found the ILP valuable to understand incoming interns’ competencies (26 of 40, 65%) and areas for improvement (24 of 40, 60%) and thought it should continue (29 of 40, 73%). Programs estimated the ILP took interns 29.2±14.9 minutes and 21.6±10.3 minutes for faculty mentors to complete. The most common barrier was faculty mentor participation.

Conclusions An ILP based on interns’ self-reported data was feasible and valuable to IM residency programs in understanding interns’ competencies and areas for improvement.

Comments

Associated Data