ANALYSIS OF CURRENT PRACTICES IN RECRUITMENT OF RESIDENTS FOR PHYSICAL MEDICINE AND REHABILITATION - SURVEY OF PM-AND-R DEPARTMENT CHAIRS

The purpose of this study was to survey the current opinion of Physica l Medicine & Rehabilitation (PM&R) chairs on issues of resident recrui tment. There was a 92% response rate after two mailings. A majority (6 2%) of chairs reported more difficulty now than two years ago in obtai ning an adequate number of American medical graduates for their reside ncy programs. This was true regardless of program size, type, or locat ion. The three highest ranking reasons for this difficulty were as fol lows: competition from primary internal medicine; primary care emphasi s in medical school curriculums; competition from family medicine. The majority of chairs (87%) reported no increased difficulty in recruiti ng international medical graduates. The three most frequently used rec ruiting methods were as follows: clinical rotation electives; using fa culty as student advisors; teaching in the physical diagnosis course. The chairs' opinion of the three most important reasons residents choo se a specific program include the following: having a committed and in terested faculty; having happy current residents; having an establishe d program with successful graduates. A reduction in the number of resi dents in their programs during the next four years was predicted by 27 % of the chairs. The chairs also felt that we currently have too many residency slots, preferring numbers of 600 to 1,300 (mean, 1,010). The chairs had no clear choices in methods to downsize programs if that w ere to be mandated by the federal government but appeared the least in terested in doing so by reducing every program by a flat percentage.