Anesthesiology Recruiting:
Dispatches From the Interview Trail — Is Anesthesiology
Becoming More Competitive?
Robert
Christensen
Three trends can be identified from the Electronic
Residency Application Service, or ERAS, match statistics.
First, where in previous years many residency programs
were going unfilled in the match, now more than 95
percent of the available residency positions are filled
through the match.1
At the same time, the number of American graduates
applying to anesthesiology has steadily risen while
the number of international medical graduates has
fallen. Lastly, the average number of programs to
which each applicant submitted an application also
has risen.2 Given that
American graduates are often considered more desirable,
in part due to funding considerations, these three
trends indicate that anesthesiology is indeed becoming
more competitive.
There are more subjective measures that indicate the
increasing competition in anesthesiology. CA-3s and
fellows can tell stories of the days when anesthesiology
programs paid travel expenses for American graduates
to interview. This year many programs provided a nice
dinner for the applicants in order to facilitate question-and-answer
sessions. This practice is not unusual among specialties.
Many programs, however, also are covering lodging
expenses, which is perhaps a vestige of less competitive
days. If what programs are providing to their applicants
is used as a measure of competition, then the supply-and-demand
curve is indeed shifting.
Does Anesthesiology Have a Gender Bias?
While the gender gap in American medical schools has
narrowed, there have not been significant changes
in the gender ratio of the applicant pool to anesthesiology.
The composition of females has held steady around
31 percent in the last three years despite increased
competition for anesthesiology residency positions.
While the full explanation for this gender ratio is
certainly multifactorial, it is notable that in the
average program in 2002, 24.8 percent of the full-time
faculty were female and 26.4 percent of the residents
and fellows were female.3
Does this ratio then indicate an improvement in the
gender split? Given that medical school graduates
overall are now almost evenly split, should recruiters
be doing more to encourage female applicants?
You’re Not Going Into Private Practice?
Academia is not a common destination for graduates
of anesthesiology programs. With 934 of 1,290 graduates
and fellows responding to a survey about their future
career plans, less than 20 percent listed “academician”
as their future position. Another 30 percent were
pursuing further training; however, the lure of private
practice is clear.4
Academic programs are responding to this problem with
a variety of strategies, including improved benefits
for residents with academic interests such as paying
for conferences, increased salaries for academic faculty
and higher salaries for residents who contract for
an academic career. What effects these measures will
have remains to be seen.
What Does the Future Hold?
Programs that continue to offer the right mix of didactics,
clinical teaching, variety of cases and environment
will find increased numbers and quality of applicants.
At the same time, they will likely have to build on
current efforts to attract female residents and those
interested in academics.
Please send any article suggestions, topics or ideas
to the editors at <residents.review@ASAhq.org>.
References:
1. <www.nrmp.org/res_match/tables/table6_2003.pdf>.
2. <www.aamc.org/programs/eras/programs/stats/ans03.htm>.
<www.aamc.org/programs/eras/programs/stats/anstat.htm>.
<www.aamc.org/programs/eras/programs/stats/anstat01.htm>.
3. <www.ama-assn.org/vapp/freida/spcstsc/0,1238,040,00.html>.
4. <www.ama-assn.org/vapp/freida/career/0,1238,040,00.html>.
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Robert
Christensen is a fourth-year medical student
at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan. |
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