The responsibilities and activities of internal medicine clerkship directors

Purpose. To characterize the responsibilities, activities, and scholarly pr oductivity of internal medicine clerkship directors (CDs). Methods. In 1999, internal medicine CDs from 122 U.S. medical schools and o ne Canadian medical school were surveyed. The instrument asked about the CD s' demographics, workloads, clerkship characteristics, and scholarly produc tivity. Results. The response rate was 89%; 72% of the respondents were men. Mean a ge was 45 years, mean time as CD was 6.5 years, and 58% of the CDs had comp leted fellowship training. The CDs spent 28% of their professional time on the clerkship, three half days weekly in clinic, and three months on inpati ent services. The CDs had published a mean of 2.2 (range 0-20) articles and received a mean of 0.7 (range 0-4) grants. Similar factors were associated with publishing articles and receiving grants; gender (men), less than or equal to three clinic half days weekly, fellowship training, having a facul ty development program, teaching other courses, and discussing expectations with their department chairs. In a multivarlate analysis, fellowship train ing, clinic half days, teaching other courses, and discussing expectations explained 22% of the variance for payers published. For grants received, a model with gender, clinic half days, a faculty development program, discuss ing expectations, and teaching other courses explained 35% of the variance. Conclusions. An internal medicine CD invests significant effort administeri ng the clerkship and contributing to clinical and educational activities. T he factors associated with successful scholarship may be useful for fosteri ng CDs' academic careers.