Residency Track Option

Pros:

• Focused curriculum on inpatient clinical skills, with opportunity for quality/administrative components of hospitalist medicine
• Efficient form of hospitalist training in terms of time/opportunity cost, with significant overlap in current residency training
• Allows/meets need for “individualized” resident curriculum rather than a "one size fits all" structure 
• Research, quality improvement, and administrative electives available; can tailor towards physician’s future career plans 
• Addresses needs of both academic and community pediatric hospitalists, with additional post-residency training available for the individual (e.g., PHM academic fellowships, research fellowships) 
• Financial and time benefits for physician versus fellowship 
• No additional program funding needed
• Meets workforce needs

Cons:

• Early career decision needed. (Exact timing depends on when track starts in residency, but those who decided to enter PHM late in residency or after residency would need to find other ways of training. Also, if the physician changed his/her mind, it may be difficult to catch up in other fields.)
• May not be able to effectively train for Pediatric Hospital Medicine career within a 3-year residency, given other ACGME requirements, changing duty hours and growing inpatient care complexity 
• Potentially sacrifice overall general pediatric training and experience with subspecialty rotations
• Limited time for academic and scholarly activity – i.e. research, Quality Improvement 
• Failure to advance field in terms of research and quality efforts 
• Lack of recognition of subspecialty board certification 
• Difficulty in standardizing curriculum and training across residency programs; difficult for employers to know whether physician is adequately trained to meet hospital’s needs 
• Low probability of additional formal training
• May be difficult for smaller residency programs to offer this track