Is the quality of surgical residency applicants deteriorating?

• Published in: The American journal of surgery 2001, Vol.181 (1), p.44-49
• Main Authors: Cofer, Joseph B, Biderman, Michael D, Lewis, Patricia L, Potts, John R, Laws, Henry L, O’Leary, J.Patrick, Richardson, J.David
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Alpha Omega Alpha; Biological and medical sciences; Data Collection; Educational Measurement; Foreign residents; General Surgery - education; Health participants; Humans; Hypotheses; Internship and Residency - standards; Interviews; Medical education; Medical residencies; Medical schools; Medical sciences; Medical students; Polls & surveys; Primary care; Public health. Hygiene; Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine; Quality; Recruitment; Regression analysis; Schools; Students; Students, Medical; Surgery; Surgical education; Surgical residents; Surveys; Trends; United States; United States Medical Licensing Examination scores; Variance analysis; Workforce
• ISSN: 0002-9610; 1879-1883
• DOI: 10.1016/S0002-9610(00)00530-4

Background: Among directors of general surgery residencies, there is a concern that the quality of medical students applying to surgical residencies is declining. Methods: Quality of surgical applicants was assessed by several methods including subjective opinions determined by survey and by objective data including student United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) scores of matched candidates. The number of applicants interviewed, total interviews granted, proportion of Alpha Omega Alpha (AOA) students, and the rank order of the candidates matched was obtained by survey. The survey included data on postgraduate year 1 (PGY-1) residents from July 1996 to July 1999. Three mailings were made to 226 US surgical residency programs. Results: Data were obtained from 90 programs. Surgery program directors disagreed with a survey statement that overall quality of applicants had declined ( P