The American Journal of Medicine
Volume 123, Issue 3 , Page e15, March 2010

Program Director Satisfaction Revisited: An Alternate View

Department of Medicine, Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, Penn

Article Outline

 

To the Editor:

Your February 2009 issue included a landmark contribution from Hinchey and colleagues1 regarding the second administration of the internal medicine program director satisfaction survey. It is important to recognize that among the variables measured, the program director salary, balance of time on service, and number of support staff were important factors in the satisfaction of the cohort. I must confess that I too scanned Table 3 to view the spectrum of salary responses—that is only human nature. But I realized that maybe we missed the point here and that an alternate perspective needed to be shared.

As residency program directors, we are rewarded by more than the length of our residency review committee cycle, our own individual faculty rank, the number of associate program directors who help us meet administrative duties, or the proportion of time we have to perform our educational roles; our satisfaction is much more complex, much more rich, and much less ephemeral.

Rather, program director satisfaction is measured in events, such as

•watching a resident become a master clinician;

•receiving a note from an appreciative patient describing the resident's role in his/her recovery from a life-threatening illness;

•learning that a resident has had his/her first manuscript accepted for publication;

•hearing that a resident will become a new mother or father;

•learning about a resident's first job;

•receiving good news in the fellowship match;

•witnessing high-quality care; and

•allowing a resident to learn from a mistake.

The value of the article by Hinchey et al1 is that the data allow us to identify key constructs of the program director position that will allow program directors to remain comfortable in their positions. This is critical to developing and sustaining these important educational leaders. The structure of the program, including support staff and associates, is indeed an important factor to allow a program director to succeed and find satisfaction. However, the true satisfaction for the program director lies in the residents' successes.

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Reference 

  1. Hinchey K, MacDonald F, Beasley B. Sources of satisfaction for Residency Program Directors. Am J Med. 2009;122:196–201

 Funding: None.

 Conflict of Interest: None.

 Authorship: Dr Kane is the sole author of this manuscript and had full access to the data.

PII: S0002-9343(09)01059-6

doi:10.1016/j.amjmed.2009.07.032

Refers to article:

  • Sources of Satisfaction: A Second Administration of the Program Director Satisfaction Survey

    Kevin T. Hinchey, Furman S. McDonald, Brent W. Beasley
    The American Journal of Medicine February 2009 (Vol. 122, Issue 2, Pages 196-201)

The American Journal of Medicine
Volume 123, Issue 3 , Page e15, March 2010

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