COMPARING SELECTION CRITERIA OF RESIDENCY DIRECTORS AND PHYSICIANS EMPLOYERS

In 1993, the Medical College of Pennsylvania (MCP), mindful of the rap idly changing environments of health care delivery, created three surv eys to gather information from outside the school that would help the faculty plan how the curriculum and advising system could better prepa re students and residents for the demands of twenty-first-century medi cine. The first survey focused on the MCP seniors graduating that year and asked about their perceptions of their medical education and thei r specialty and residency choices. The second survey, directed to 40 m edical residency program directors in family medicine, internal medici ne, pediatrics, and surgery, sought to identify the characteristics of applicants that these directors valued when selecting entrants to the ir programs. The third survey, of 30 employers to their programs. The third survey, of 30 employers of physicians representing four practice environments (private practice, hospitals/other health systems, acade mic medical centers, and health maintenance organizations), sought inf ormation on hiring and recruitment practices and the skills, competenc ies, and attitudes these employers valued most when hiring recently gr aduated physicians. The responses showed several differences and/or mi sperceptions among the views held by the three groups surveyed and sug gest that medical educators have not adapted as rapidly as have employ ers to changes in the health care environment. Academic health centers must broaden their missions and make changes in their own institution al cultures, both to maintain their own viability and to train physici ans who have the balance between scientific and technical competency a nd essential personal characteristics (such as empathy) that the next century's practice will probably demand.