Medical College of Wisconsin
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Internal Medicine Resident Evaluations of Attending Physicians. Eval Health Prof 2025 Dec;48(4):458-462

Date

09/03/2025

Pubmed ID

40900122

DOI

10.1177/01632787251377057

Scopus ID

2-s2.0-105014892821 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site)   1 Citation

Abstract

This study's purpose was to assess the prevalence and characteristics of highly and poorly rated attending physicians as well as the evaluation's reliability and validity. Medicine residents evaluated attending physicians (2013-2024) on eight teaching domains (clarity, supervision, skills, decision-making, expectations, feedback, approachability and overall effectiveness). Overall teaching effectiveness was dichotomized into "highly rated" (scores of 5) and "poorly rated" (scores of ≤3). We assessed correlates of highly and poorly rated attending physicians using generalized latent and linear and mixed methods. Validity and reliability were assessed using factor analysis, Cronbach's alpha and intra-class correlation coefficients. Among 20,150 evaluations of 668 attending physicians by 814 residents, 67% were rated highly (n = 12,801) and 9% were poorly rated (n = 1,754). Highly rated attendings explained decisions (OR: 5.1, 95% CI: 3.l-7.0), were clear (OR: 3.2, 95% CI: 2.4-4.4), approachable (OR: 2.9, 95% CI: 2.2-3.9) and demonstrated skills (OR: 3.2, 95% CI: 2.4-4.3). Poorly rated attending physicians received multiple poor ratings (74%) and lower scores on all teaching domains. Ratings were reliable and consistent, but had low levels of agreement by residents. We conclude that attending physicians were commonly highly rated. While uncommon, poor ratings are better discriminators of teaching quality than highly rated ones.

Author List

Auckley ED, Geiger J, Farkas A, Scholcoff C, Gavinski K, Jackson JL

Authors

Amy H. Farkas MD, MS Associate Professor in the Medicine department at Medical College of Wisconsin
Katherine Gavinski MD, MPH Assistant Professor in the Medicine department at Medical College of Wisconsin
Jeffrey L. Jackson MD Professor in the Medicine department at Medical College of Wisconsin
Cecilia Scholcoff MD, MPH Associate Professor in the Medicine department at Medical College of Wisconsin




MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold

Adult
Clinical Competence
Female
Humans
Internal Medicine
Internship and Residency
Male
Medical Staff, Hospital
Reproducibility of Results