P. Marcinkowski1, P. Strassle1, T. Sadiq1, M. Meyers1 1University Of North Carolina At Chapel Hill,General Surgery,Chapel Hill, NC, USA
Introduction:
Applicants pursuing surgery residency have a number of variables to prioritize in selecting a training program. We sought to evaluate the importance of various criteria to applicants applying to surgery residency.
Methods:
An anonymous electronic survey was distributed to applicants who interviewed at a single surgery program over a six-year period (Match years 2013-2018). Respondents were asked to categorize the importance of various criteria in considering a training program on a 5-point scale (very important/above average/average/below average/unimportant). Fisher’s exact tests were used to assess whether the percentage of respondents considering each variable ‘more important’ varied across application year (categorized as 2013-2014, 2015-2016, and 2017-2018), sex, medical school region, or medical school type (public vs. private). A p-value <0.05 was considered statistically significant. All analyses were performed using SAS 9.4 (SAS Inc., Cary, NC).
Results:
176 responses were received (35% response rate). 47% female. 47% were from the Southeast region followed by 20% Midwest, 19% Northeast, 7% Southwest, 6% West. 40% attended private medical schools. 100% of applicants applying 2015-2018 ranked operative experience as very important/above average importance versus applicants applying from 2013-2014 who ranked it very important/above average importance 94% of the time (p=0.04). Applicants applying 2017-2018 ranked non-operative clinical experience very important/above average importance 90.7% of the time compared to 2013-2014 and 2015-2016 who ranked it similarly 77.6% and 73.9% of the time respectively (p=0.04). Applicants from the northeast region ranked research opportunities as very important/above average importance 96.9% of the time compared to the other regions (West: 63.6%, Midwest: 73.5%, Southeast: 75.3%, Southwest: 83.3%) (p=0.02). Otherwise, there was no statistically significant variation in applicant demographics and criteria they believed important to them in choosing a residency program. Overall, applicants rated resident attitude/relationship (91% very important), faculty attitude (80% very important), resident/faculty relationship (75% very important) and operative experience (89% very important) as the most important characteristics.
Conclusion:
Surgery residency applicants appear to place greatest importance on interpersonal interactions and operative experience over other training program/hospital characteristics. There was some variability depending on the year applied and the region that the applicant applied from, but in general applicants had similar preferences. This information may be helpful to applicants and programs alike as they navigate the application and match process.
