Intern evaluation strategies in family medicine residency education: what is-and is not-being done

Family medicine interns often have deficiencies that are not initially appreciated. By recognizing those growth opportunities early, programs may be able to better meet their interns' training needs. This study provides a needs assessment to ascertain what evaluation tools are being utilized by residency programs to assess their incoming interns. A questionnaire was sent to all US family medicine residency program coordinators (439 programs) via Survey Monkey© inquiring about whether intern evaluation is performed and, if so, what strategies are used. A mixed mode methodology was used: mailing with incentive, email prompts, and telephone calls. Of 439 programs, 220 (50%) responded to the survey. Most respondents (145, 66%) think intern evaluation is needed. However, only 79 (36%) programs are actually doing intern evaluations-only 14 (6.4%) extensively. Most programs are performing simulations (81, 45%) and assessing knowledge/comfort levels (79, 36%); less than one third are considering personality/learning styles, and almost no programs are evaluating skills such as typing (three, 1.4%) and math (one, 0.5%). Many programs use evaluations to guide future planning, help with early identification of challenging learners, and to match training to the residents' needs. Several programs expressed concern about how they would use the information once obtained. The majority of respondents agreed that a baseline intern evaluation is useful; few are actually doing it. This area is not well-described in the literature; residency programs could benefit from information sharing. The next step is to encourage interest in and implementation of such strategies.