Brief report: Multiprogram evaluation of reading habits of primary care internal medicine residents on ambulatory rotations

OBJECTIVE: To assess the reading habits and educational resources of primary care internal medicine residents for their ambulatory medicine education. DESIGN: Cross-sectional, multiprogram survey of primary care internal medicine residents. PARTICIPANTS/SETTING: Second- and third-year residents on ambulatory care rotations at 9 primary care medicine programs (124 eligible residents; 71% response rate). MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Participants were asked open-ended and 5-point Likert-scaled questions about reading habits: time spent reading, preferred resources, and motivating and inhibiting factors. Participants reported reading medical topics for a mean of 4.3 ± 3.0 SD hours weekly. Online-only sources were the most frequently utilized medical resource (mean Likert response 4.16 ± 0.87). Respondents most commonly cited specific patients' cases (4.38 ± 0.65) and preparation for talks (4.08 ± 0.89) as motivating factors, and family responsibilities (3.99 ± 0.65) and lack of motivation (3.93 ± 0.81) as inhibiting factors. CONCLUSIONS: To stimulate residents' reading, residency programs should encourage patient- and case-based learning; require teaching assignments; and provide easy access to online curricula.