Use of private offices in education of residents in internal medicine

Of the 440 accredited residency programs in internal medicine, 129 assign residents to private offices. From this group, 29 program directors with 47 resident-preceptor teams matched to the same offices submitted a complete set of questionnaires for analysis. The results provide information concerning the selection process for this assignment, its design and development, the nature of the educational activities, and evaluation and financing. The results suggest that the private office may be an effective learning experience for medical residents and an underused educational resource. A particular strength of the experience may be the frequent and effective resident-preceptor interactions, which seem to focus mostly on problem identification and clinical decision making.