A Nationwide Survey of Educational Resource Utilization and Perception Among Internal Medicine Residents

Background: New virtual resources (“novel resources”) have been incorporated into medical education. No recent large studies about their use and perception among internal medicine (IM) residents exist. Objective: Characterize the use and perceived helpfulness of educational resources. Design: Nationwide survey from December 2019 to March 2020. Participants: IM residents in the USA. Main measures: Residents were surveyed on their use and their perceived helpfulness of resources for both attaining general medical knowledge and for point-of-care (POC) learning. Traditional resources included board review resources, clinical experience, digital clinical resources (e.g., UpToDate), journal articles, pocket references, professional guidelines, textbooks, and residency curricula. Novel resources included Twitter, video streaming platforms (e.g., YouTube), online blogs, podcasts, and Wikipedia. Key results: We had 662 respondents from 55 residency programs across 26 states. On average, residents used 9 total resources (7 traditional and 2 novel). Digital clinical resources and clinical experience were used by all residents and found helpful by the highest percentage of residents (96% and 94%, respectively). Journal articles were next (used by 90%), followed by board review resources and residency curricula (both used by 85%). Their perceived helpfulness varied, from 90% for board review resources, to 66% for journal articles and 64% for residency curricula, the lowest perceived helpfulness of any traditional resource. Podcasts and video streaming platforms were used as frequently as textbooks (58–59%), but were rated as helpful more frequently (75% and 82% vs 66%, respectively). Conclusions: Digital clinical resources, video streaming platforms, and podcasts were perceived as helpful, underscoring the importance of ensuring their integration into medical education to complement clinical experience and other traditional resources which remain highly valued by residents. Importance: Our findings can inform residency programs as they transition to virtual curricula in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.