Impact of duty hour regulations on medical students' education: views of key clinical faculty.

BACKGROUND: Teaching faculty have valuable perspectives on the impact of residency duty hour regulations on medical students.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to elicit faculty views on the impact of residency duty hour regulations on medical students' educational experience on inpatient medicine rotations.

DESIGN AND PARTICIPANTS: We conducted a National Survey of Key Clinical Faculty (KCF) at 40 internal medicine residency programs affiliated with U.S. medical schools using a random sample stratified by National Institutes of Health funding and program size.

MEASUREMENTS: This study measures KCF opinions on the effect of duty hour regulations on students' education.

RESULTS: Of 154 KCF targeted, 111 responded (72%). Fifty-two percent of KCF reported worsening in the overall quality of students' education compared to just 2.7% reporting improvement (p < 0.001). In multivariate analysis adjusted for gender, academic rank, specialty, and years of teaching experience, faculty who spent >/=15 hours per week teaching were more likely to report worsening in medical students' level of responsibility on inpatient teams [odds ratio (OR) 3.1; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.3-7.6], ability to follow patients throughout hospitalization (OR 3.2; 95% CI 1.3-7.9), ability to develop working relationships with residents (OR 2.3; 95% CI 1.0-5.2), and the overall quality of students' education (OR 3.3; 95% CI 1.4-8.1) compared to faculty who spent less time teaching.

CONCLUSION: Key clincal faculty report concerns about the impact of duty hour regulations on aspects of medical students' education in internal medicine. Medical schools and residency programs should identify ways to ensure optimal educational experiences for students within duty hour requirements.