Wonder where your peers practice after training? A national report highlights top practice trends among recent residents, including the percentage who practice in medically underserved areas and those who have earned faculty appointments at MD-granting schools.
The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) recently released its annual Report on Residents, which provides “information on certain characteristics of residency applicants and residents, as well as information on post-residency professional activities,” according to the AAMC.
Using data from various sources, researchers at the AAMC noted these practice trends among residents who completed training from 2005 to 2014:
- Almost one-quarter of recent residents practiced in medically underserved areas - Overall, 23.9 percent of recent residents practiced in underserved areas after training, and “the rates of practicing in medically underserved areas were greater than 20 percent for many of the largest specialties,” according to data from the report. These specialties included:
- Family medicine (24.5 percent)
- Internal medicine (24.7 percent)
- Obstetrics-gynecology (22.4 percent)
- Neurology (25.3 percent)
- Pediatrics (24.5 percent)
- Psychiatry (25.2 percent)
- General surgery (24.4 percent)
- More than one-half—52.9 percent—of recent residents now practice in the state where they did their residency training. - This trend was even more prevalent among recent residents practicing certain specialties, including emergency medicine, integrated thoracic surgery and the combined specialty of pediatrics-dermatology. The report provides a full breakdown of the percentage of residents who practiced in the same locations where they trained.
- A notable percentage of residents landed faculty appointments after training. “Among those individuals who completed residency … 15.9 percent currently hold a full-time faculty appointment at a U.S. MD-granting medical school,” the report notes. The percentage of residents with full-time appointments varied greatly by specialty and subspecialty, ranging from 3.9 percent of residents in family medicine to 100 percent of residents in neuromuscular medicine. Additional subspecialties with a high percentage of residents who earned faculty appointments included:
- Neurodevelopmental disability (61.5 percent)
- Pediatric surgery (56.9 percent)
- Pediatrics-medical genetics (55.6 percent)
- Pediatric urology (52.5 percent)
- Otology-neurotology (51.9 percent)
Get more insights on practice options after residency
- Learn what resident really want in a future practice.
- Review these key descriptions of practice settings to ensure you understand your practice options after residency.
- Use these employment resources to conduct an effective job search.
