The Cost and Burden of the Residency Match in Emergency Medicine
To obtain a residency match, medical students entering emergency medicine (EM) must complete away rotations, submit a number of lengthy applications, and travel to multiple programs to interview. The expenses incurred acquiring this residency position are burdensome, but there is little specialty...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
eScholarship Publishing, University of California
2017-01-01
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| Series: | Western Journal of Emergency Medicine |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://escholarship.org/uc/item/7zx8006r#page-1 |
| Summary: | To obtain a residency match, medical students entering emergency medicine (EM) must
complete away rotations, submit a number of lengthy applications, and travel to multiple programs to
interview. The expenses incurred acquiring this residency position are burdensome, but there is little
specialty-specific data estimating it. We sought to quantify the actual cost spent by medical students
applying to EM residency programs by surveying students as they attended a residency interview.
Researchers created a 16-item survey, which asked about the time and monetary costs
associated with the entire EM residency application process. Applicants chosen to interview for an EM
residency position at our institution were invited to complete the survey during their interview day.
In total, 66 out of a possible 81 residency applicants (an 81% response rate) completed
our survey. The “average applicant” who interviewed at our residency program for the 2015-16
cycle completed 1.6 away, or “audition,” rotations, each costing an average of $1,065 to complete.
This “average applicant” applied to 42.8 programs, and then attended 13.7 interviews. The cost of
interviewing at our program averaged $342 and in total, an average of $8,312 would be spent in the
pursuit of an EM residency.
Due to multiple factors, the costs of securing an EM residency spot can be expensive. By
understanding the components that are driving this trend, we hope that the academic EM community
can explore avenues to help curtail these costs. |
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| ISSN: | 1936-900X 1936-9018 |