Program Overview: Mentorship, Evaluation, and Communication

Aimee Sanders, MD, MPH is a graduate of the Women's Health Track. Her career goal is to be a women's health specialist in an internal medicine practice, and she credits a number of faculty members with supporting her aspirations. "The beauty of mentorship is that you can have mentors in different areas," she says. In 2005, with support from Hollis Day, MD, MS, program director of the Geriatrics Track, Dr. Sanders made an oral presentation at the national meeting of the Society of General Internal Medicine in New Orleans and won the "best presentation" award for her set of vignettes. "Without Dr. Day's mentoring, I wouldn't have presented the case to the conference," she says. Although Dr. Day focuses on geriatrics rather than women's health, she formed a connection with Dr. Sanders during a rotation as her teaching attending. "The formal program here, where you are paired up with somebody from your track in the beginning, is great," Dr. Sanders says, "but there are also many opportunities throughout daily residency to develop mentorship relationships."

Aimee Sanders, MD, MPH
Women's Health Track

To help interns and residents navigate the difficulties of residency, our program has established several means for support, guidance, and evaluation. One of the primary goals is to help trainees discover their niche in general or subspecialty care within the realm of either private practice or academic medicine. Specific mentorship has been established to help choose from a variety of opportunities to pursue research and scholarly activities. In addition, faculty advisors help foster an atmosphere of personal and professional growth. Feedback from housestaff is valued in a continual effort to improve the residency.

Housestaff Mentoring Program

All incoming interns are matched with a general medicine attending who meets with them regularly throughout the first year. These mentors provide personalized guidance on career development, feedback on evaluations of their clinical performance, and support on any number of matters involved in the intern's personal and professional development.

Resident Career Development Program

The goal of this program is to expose interns to subspecialty careers and help those who are interested prepare for a fellowship following residency. Each subspecialty division has designated a point person—often the fellowship program director or the division chief—to meet with interns and match them by the middle of their first year with a research mentor from the division. By the time residents are applying for fellowships early in their second year, they will have well-outlined research agendas as well as personal letters of recommendation from their research mentor and other key supporters.

Meet-the-Subspecialists Day and Career Luncheons

Special events are arranged throughout the year for residents to meet with faculty from various subspecialties. Career luncheons are designed to help residents learn more about finding and applying for fellowships and jobs. They also serve as an opportunity for residents to establish contacts and mentoring relationships with faculty in subspecialty fields.

Housestaff Luncheon

Housestaff Luncheon is a monthly event in which the Program Director and the Chair of Medicine discuss residency-related issues with the housestaff over a specially catered meal.

Resident and Fellow Assistance Program (RFAP)

The Resident and Fellow Assistance Program (RFAP) is sponsored by the University Health Center of Pittsburgh (UHCP), which governs and operates the graduate medical education programs. The RFAP provides housestaff and their family members with assessment and short-term counseling or referral to appropriate community resources for personal, career, and job-related needs. Counseling is provided by the RFAP staff, including the medical director and a board-certified psychiatrist. There is no cost to housestaff or family members for RFAP services.

Housestaff Evaluation Program

Evaluation and communication are essential aspects in any educational program. These are particularly important in any practice-based learning experience, such as medicine.

Each resident's educational and professional development is tracked via several methods. Residents receive verbal feedback about their clinical performance from the attending physicians with whom they work. Residents, housestaff, and faculty utilize a web-based evaluation system to evaluate themselves, each other, and the clinical settings in which they interact.

Each member of the housestaff has a personal, biannual composite performance evaluation with the Program Director. During this one-on-one meeting, the resident's evaluations are reviewed, progress on procedural training is discussed, and progress toward career goals is assessed. The meeting enables the Program Director to ensure that residents are achieving the goals of the program, and it gives residents a venue to voice any concerns or satisfaction they may have with their progress, the program, or other matters.

Housestaff Council and Resident Governance

Members of the housestaff have a voice in the decision-making process at all levels. Residents serve on all five curriculum subcommittees and on the Steering Committee that coordinates them. In addition, elected representatives from each year plus the chief residents serve on the Housestaff Council, through which major curriculum changes are evaluated and modified before implementation. Less formal forums for interns and residents to make their voices heard include monthly luncheons at which common operational issues are discussed. Weekly meetings with the chief residents keep the program's administrators apprised of new issues. The faculty's commitment to continuous interaction with interns and residents generates regular feedback about the program's training potential and stands out as one of its defining characteristics.