What Are We Telling Our Students? A National Survey of Clerkship Directors' Advice for Students Applying to Internal Medicine Residency

ABSTRACT Background  Little is known about the advice fourth-year medical students receive from their advisors as they prepare to apply for residency training. Objective  We collected information on recommendations given to medical students preparing to apply to internal medicine residencies regarding fourth-year schedules and application strategies. Methods  Clerkship Directors in Internal Medicine conducted its annual member survey in June 2013. We analyzed responses on student advising using descriptive and comparative statistics, and free-text responses using content analysis. Results  Of 124 members, 94 (76%) responded, and 83 (88%) advised fourth-year medical students. Nearly half (45%) advised an average of more than 20 students a year. Advisors encouraged students to take a medicine subinternship (Likert scale mean 4.84 [1, strongly discourage, to 5, strongly encourage], SD = 0.61); a critical care rotation (4.38, SD = 0.79); and a medicine specialty clinical rotation (4.01, SD = 0.80). Advisors r...