“Problem Residents”: Prevalence, Problems and Remediation in the Era of Core Competencies

The American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) has defined the "problem resident" as a learner who demonstrates problem behaviors significant enough to require intervention by program leadership, typically the residency program director or chief resident. It has been over a decade since Yao and Wright's report on the prevalence of "problem residents" in internal medicine residency training programs. Their survey of program directors reported performance problems in 6.9% of residents. We are unaware of any subsequent large studies in internal medicine of this important topic. Although the term "problem resident" has been used frequently, we will refer to these individuals as "residents in difficulty." The purpose of this study was to assess internal medicine program director experiences with residents in difficulty in the era of Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) competencies. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]