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Personal Growth During Internship : A Qualitative Analysis Of Interns' Responses To Key Questions, Rachel Levine, Paul Haidet, David Kern, Brent Beasley, Lisa Bensinger, Donald Brady, Todd Gress, Jennifer Hughes, Ajay Marwaha, Jennifer Nelson, Scott Wright

Todd W. Gress

BACKGROUND: During clinical training, house officers frequently encounter intense experiences that may affect their personal growth. The purpose of this study was to explore processes related to personal growth during internship. DESIGN: Prospective qualitative study conducted over the course of internship. PARTICIPANTS: Thirty-two postgraduate year (PGY)-1 residents from 9 U.S. internal medicine training programs. APPROACH: Every 8 weeks, interns responded by e-mail to an open ended question related to personal growth. Content analysis methods were used to analyze the interns’ writings to identify triggers, facilitators, and barriers related to personal growth. RESULTS: Triggers for personal growth included caring for critically …

Personal Growth And Its Correlates During Residency Training, Todd Gress, Scott Wright, Rachel Levine, Brent Beasley, Paul Haidet, Suzanne Caccamese, Donald Brady, Ajay Marwaha, David Kern

Todd W. Gress

• Objectives  To explore the characteristics of and factors associated with personal growth during residency training.
• Methods  In 2003, 359 house officers on 7 internal medicine residency training programmes in the USA were surveyed about their training experiences and issues related to their personal growth. Factor analysis and internal reliability testing were used to develop a ‘personal growth scale’. Logistic regression models were then used to identify independent associations between individual variables and ‘high’ versus ‘low’ personal growth scores.
• Results  A total of 281 house officers (80%) responded. The personal growth scale had a Cronbach's alpha of 0.81. Factors that were …