Clinician, Educator, Administrator and Researcher: What is the Ideal Role for a Pediatric Chief Resident? Bridging the Gap Between Perspective and Practice

Abstract

The role distribution of pediatric chief residents varies greatly among different programs, with great discrepancy in the balance of clinician, educator, administrator, research and quality improvement roles. It is unclear if this discrepancy is the result of differing goals of the program directors’ and chief residents’ or rather the result of long-standing program expectations. In 2011, Dabrow et al. found that the chief resident role was primarily administrative, but found that both program directors (PD) and chief residents (CR) valued clinical and educational roles more highly. We hoped to expand upon these findings by seeking to quantify the percentage time spent in these different roles, and compare the actual distribution of these roles to the ideal distribution, as viewed by PD and CR.