Table 1

Table Moderator: Michelle Knees, DO

Topic Title: Advancing Research in Hospital Medicine: Addressing Barriers and Building Collaborative Pathways

Topic Importance: Hospital medicine is a rapidly evolving field that increasingly relies on robust research to inform clinical practice and improve patient outcomes. However, hospitalists often encounter significant barriers when engaging in research activities, including limited time, resources, and mentorship opportunities. This round table discussion would be a companion to a paper published in the Journal of Hospital Medicine ("Breaking Down Barriers: Decoding Archetypes in Hospital Medicine Research"; https://shmpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jhm.13210). This discussion could help guide the development of content to support hospitalists in their research endeavors across the common archetypes (traditional researchers, embedded researchers, research contributors, and exploratory researchers).

Target Audience:

Hospitalists interested in initiating or advancing their research careers.
Academic leaders and mentors responsible for supporting faculty development.
Division/group administrators involved in facilitating hospital medicine research.

Takeaways:

• Insight into research archetypes and potential strategies to overcome associated challenges.
• Opportunity to collaborate and build support networks across divisions/groups that can facilitate research activities among hospitalists.
• Peer-to-peer guidance/brainstorming on how to navigate the research landscape in hospital medicine, tailored to individual archetypes and career goals.

Table 2

Table Moderator: Arunab Mehta, MD, FHM

Topic Title: Balancing Education and Patient Care: Hospitalists' Role in Direct Care Services

Topic Importance: Hospitalists are at the forefront of inpatient medical education, serving as both clinicians and educators for learners rotating through direct care services. Their role extends beyond managing acutely ill patients.  They provide real-time supervision, clinical reasoning mentorship, and structured feedback, all while ensuring high-quality patient care. As hospital medicine continues to expand as a dominant field in academic and community settings, balancing teaching with efficient, evidence-based patient management is critical. Understanding how to optimize learner engagement, foster autonomy while maintaining oversight, and navigate challenges like time constraints and variable learner skill levels is essential for hospitalists to sustain both education and patient outcomes effectively.

Target Audience: The primary audience includes hospitalists who regularly supervise medical students, residents, and advanced practice providers on inpatient teams. This session is also relevant for academic leaders, residency program directors, chief residents, and faculty development leaders seeking strategies to improve hospital-based education. While hospitalists in teaching institutions may find immediate application, community-based hospitalists who interact with learners in evolving training models can also benefit from discussions on balancing service and education. Additionally, institutions exploring structured hospitalist-led education programs will gain insights into best practices for integrating teaching into high-acuity clinical workflows.

Takeaways: Participants will leave with practical strategies to enhance their role as educators in direct care services without compromising patient care efficiency. Key takeaways include techniques for integrating bedside teaching into fast-paced hospital settings, approaches to providing effective and timely feedback, and strategies for promoting learner autonomy while ensuring patient safety. Attendees will also gain insights into fostering professional identity development, managing common challenges such as variable learner engagement, and navigating institutional expectations regarding medical education within hospitalist practice.

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Table 3

Table Moderator: Michael Linn, MD

Topic Title: Interfacility Patient Transfers: Referring and Accepting Hospitals - Best Practices

Topic Importance: Patient transfers across hospitals is increasing and at times are limited by bed capacity, and staffing challenges. Transfer centers and command centers have evolved across organizations to help with patient transfers, but challenges continue due to limited hospital capacity. Patient flow remains a challenge that makes transfer acceptance decision more challenging.

Many times the referring facilities and accepting facilities are not able to understand the challenges faced by the other team. A round table discussion highlighting both perspectives of the referring and accepting facilities while highlighting some best practices to consider form a healthcare system perspective might promote more awareness and shared understanding that hospitalists can take back from SHM meeting.

Target Audience: All hospitalists and administrators across all sized healthcare organizations.

Takeaways:

• Perspectives of referring and accepting facilities
• Resources required to coordinate and facilitate patient transfers
• Opportunities to optimize transfers
• Best practices across healthcare organizations

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Table 4

Table Moderator: Alex Rittenberg

Topic Title: Nocturnist Workload, Staffing Models, and Burnout Prevention

Topic Importance: Addressing nocturnist workload, staffing models, and burnout prevention is critically important for ensuring quality, continuity, and sustainability across all hospital medicine groups. Although nocturnist responsibilities center on the overnight hours, the implications of their experiences extend across entire hospitalist teams that depend on 24/7 coverage. Equitable staffing structures and balanced workloads support patient safety by allowing for more thorough and timely clinical decisions, especially when resources are limited. They also promote teamwork, fairness, and a sense of professional belonging, preventing the isolation and strain that can lead to high turnover and burnout. By fostering a more supportive environment for nocturnists, we help maintain a robust, engaged hospitalist workforce capable of delivering high-quality patient care at all hours.

Target Audience: Hospitalists in all practice settings who have a stake in effective overnight patient care, as well as division leaders, medical education leaders, administrators, and quality improvement professionals interested in developing sustainable staffing models. It also encompasses trainees, early-career hospitalists, advanced practice clinicians, and those considering nocturnist roles who want to understand the challenges and best practices related to night coverage. More broadly, any individual involved in hospital operations who is curious about improving patient safety, provider well-being, and equitable workload distribution during off-hours will find value in these discussions.

Takeaways: Hopefully, participants can leave the session with a clearer understanding of how to build and maintain fair, balanced nighttime staffing models that support both patient safety and physician well-being. They might gain practical strategies for streamlining handoffs, optimizing communication tools, and using telemedicine to alleviate overnight workload pressures. Attendees could also identify new approaches to fostering team cohesion, ensuring that nocturnists feel valued and integrated within the larger hospitalist group. Lastly, participants may discover evidence-based methods for mitigating burnout and improving job satisfaction, setting the stage for long-term retention and a more resilient workforce.

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Table 5

Table Moderator: Nazish Ilyas

Topic Title: Workplace Joy: Cultivating Authentic Connections for Fulfillment and Success

Topic Importance: Burnout is a serious factor affecting the longevity of Hospitalists’ healthy career in medicine. In addition to systems improvement and resilience- it is essential to build joy during the Hospitalists’ busy shift and not necessarily look for wellness outside of the hospital. Studies suggest authentic patient connections improve physician wellbeing, and we need to share tips to do more of that!

Target Audience: Front line Hospitalists, leaders

Takeaways:

• Data on how patient connections improve their wellbeing
• Tangible tools and ways to make quick connections with patients

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Table 6

Table Moderator: Kirsten Nieto, MD

Topic Title: Hospitalist Paid Time Off (PTO): The Why, How, and the Whoa...  or Hospitalist Paid Time Off: Realistic or Idealistic

Topic Importance: PTO is essential for reducing burnout, improving retention, and ensuring a sustainable hospitalist workforce. I would like to explore the best practices for designing and implementing PTO policies that balance provider well-being with operational and financial feasibility.

Target Audience: Practice management

Takeaways:

• Strategies for fair and sustainable policies.
• How to gain leadership buy-in and advocate for PTO at the administrative level.
• The impact of PTO on retention and well-being.
• Solutions for staffing and scheduling challenges.