Implications of the hospitalist model for medical students' education

At many academic health centers, medical students in internal medicine, fam ily medicine, and pediatrics are working with a new form of attending physi cian, the hospitalist. Although a growing literature demonstrates the benef its of hospitalists for patients and housestaff, the influence of hospitali sts on students has been underemphasized. Advantages of the hospitalist mod el for students can include hospitalists' expertise in general inpatient me dicine, their availability to teach throughout the day, and their role-mode ling of the provision of high-quality and efficient care. However, the chan ge in the ward attending workforce from non-hospitalist generalists, sub-sp ecialists, and biomedical researchers to generalist-hospitalists potentiall y limits students' exposure to the broad range of career opportunities the former group represents. The authors propose a research agenda to investiga te the educational impact of the hospitalist model, suggest strategies to m itigate the limitations in students' exposures to subspecialty faculty, and recommend professional development in teaching for hospitalists to ensure that student education thrives in this new environment of inpatient medicin e.